Tesco is to stop using eggs from enriched cage systems in all food products in its stores.

In 2016, the supermarket chain announced that all eggs on its shelves would be cage-free by 2025.

However, Tesco has now taken this further by committing to not using eggs from enriched cages as food product ingredients within the same time frame.

The announcement by the UK’s biggest retailer further erodes the market for enriched cage eggs, as manufactured food products are responsible for 21% of all eggs consumed in the UK.

The retail sector equates for 56% of the market, and the remaining 23% of eggs are consumed in the food service sector.

Many retailers have gone down the route of an entirely free-range offer on shell egg

Delivering an online presentation on Tuesday, Tesco agriculture manager John Kirkpatrick forecast that 25% of eggs in the supermarket chain would be from barn systems in the future.

“Many retailers have gone down the route of an entirely free-range offer on shell egg. We have taken a very different route in terms of providing that value tier for our customers by differentiating between a good, better, best proposition,” he said.

“Barn will now be our entry tier as of 2025, with free-range being our core, and then speciality and organic being our finest tiers,” Kirkpatrick said.

The Tesco representative acknowledged that moving from enriched cage to barn systems requires “a significant and ambitious conversion plan” by egg suppliers.