German Farms in Egg Fraud

Following the horsemeat, it's the eggs


Just before Easter a new scandal has emerged: farmers are accused of selling their eggs as free-range or organic while crowding their chickens at illegal levels, in one of the biggest food scandals to ever hit the country

The European Union has strict rules for how much space chickens require for each type of farming. But the latest scandal alleges that, throughout Germany, too many chickens have been squeezed into too small a space. Prosecutors in the state of Lower Saxony say they're investigating 150 farms.

Some 160 poultry farms, including 40 that touted themselves as organic, have come under investigation by health official for deliberately breaking the strict rules governing the production of organic and free range eggs.

The German state of Lower Saxony appears to be the centre of the alleged scam but Roland Herrmann, an investigating prosecutor, said that scale of the operation was "nationwide," and that anybody found guilty faces up to six months behind bars.