SIR,

More people than ever before are choosing barn and free-range eggs which is brilliant. But most people don't realise that about 49 per cent of eggs produced in the UK still come from hens kept in cruel cages, where the minimum usable space for each bird can amount to less than the size of a piece of A4 paper.

It's so easy to do your bit to help by only choosing barn and free-range eggs, and preferably ones with the Freedom Food label.  This means that the eggs have come from hens that have been kept on farms inspected to the RSPCA's welfare standards, where they can perch, scratch about, move around freely over a large area, flap their wings and express other normal behaviours.

So whatever you decide to cook, please think about hen welfare too and make your cake a happy one.

 

Alice Clark

(RSPCA welfare scientist)