The long-awaited ban will go into effect Sunday. But shoppers will still face ethical choices when buying eggs.

Farmers must free more than 80 million hens from a particularly cruel and cramped life thanks to a change in legislation. But while almost all British egg producers will adhere to the new EU law, which forbids keeping laying hens in cramped cages - many European countries have proved unwilling to comply. Spain, France, Poland and others admit that they are not ready to revise the rules for keeping farm animals, even though they have been given 13 years to prepare. This has led to fears that cheaper, illegal eggs from the Continent will flood the UK. At present, the cage in which the laying hens are housed is the size of an A4 sheet of paper.

Based on foreign press for ForTrader.org