A customer who ordered six eggs from Sainsbury’s received a box of egg custard tarts as a result of a shortage of eggs in the United Kingdom.
The consumer, who placed the online order through Uber Eats, said she ‘laughed out loud’ when she saw that the food in her basket had been replaced.
The customer stated, “I did not receive any notifications that they were out of stock, so I was perplexed when I saw the egg custard tarts and realized it was a substitution when I noticed the eggs were missing.”
She told The Mirror, “I broke out laughing since I’ve detested custard ever since school lunch.”
It follows supply disruptions at pub chain Wetherspoon and supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Lidl, and Aldi.
Some retailers restrict the number of eggs that can be purchased. The shortfall has been partially attributed to a new outbreak of avian flu, as well as the delayed impact of millions of birds dying during the summer hot.
The woman reported contacting Uber Eats on the order, but the company has yet to react.
Yesterday, a snapshot of empty egg shelves at a Sainsbury’s was published on Twitter.
A Sainsburys customer who bought six eggs via Uber Eats was instead given egg custard tarts.
Some egg department shelves at the Aldi in North Shields, North Tyneside, are empty today.
YESTERDAY, a notice in a Lidl in Wokingham urged customers to restrict eggs to avoid the store from running out.
This week, it was discovered that certain Wetherspoon pubs had eliminated eggs from its breakfast menus, replacing them with hash browns, sausages, and onion rings.
A Wetherspoon representative stated that the shortage only affected a small number of pubs and was temporary.
The pub giant said that the scarcity was not exclusive to Wetherspoon and attributed the paucity of supplies to an outbreak of avian flu.
The outbreak has resulted in the culling of around 48 million hens, a mixture of birds raised for consumption and those producing free-range eggs, and it is now required by law to keep captive birds and poultry indoors and adhere to rigorous biosecurity regulations.
LAST WEEK, the Sainsbury’s in Dorking, Surrey, ran out of eggs.
TESCO: Egg aisle shelves at a Tesco in North Shields also appear emptier than usual today.
PRIOR WEEK: “We are currently having supply challenges with our fresh egg selection,” a sign at Sainsbury’s in Dorking informed customers.
LIDL: Eggless shelves in a Sheffield Lidl supermarket today
Andrew Opie, head of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, stated, “While avian flu has impacted the supply of some egg products, retailers are specialists at managing supply chains and are working diligently to minimize customer damage.”
Yesterday, the Instagram-famous Welsh egg farmer Ioan Humphreys lashed out in a series of videos at supermarkets, blaming them for most of the upheaval in the industry and for importing eggs from Italy rather than paying British farmers more.
The outspoken farmer said to MailOnline, ‘It’s not because we don’t want to produce eggs; it’s because we can’t afford to produce eggs. Simply a reasonable price to pay our costs so we can continue producing British eggs.’
James Mottershead, chairman of the NFU poultry board, stated, “Continuously rising production costs are exerting enormous pressure on the British chicken industry.”
Some poultry producers have been battling soaring energy and feed costs for months, as well as increases in other input expenses such as fuel, labor, and packaging, which are all adding to the overall production costs on the farm.
‘Despite these enormous inflationary pressures, producers continue to do everything they can to maintain producing affordable, high-quality eggs and poultry meat.
We are considering all options to provide producers the assurance they need to continue delivering British eggs to fulfill consumer demand.
Asda said that it has been impacted by the disruption, and even Waitrose, which is owned by John Lewis and boasts a robust egg supply, is monitoring the issue. Signs have also been noticed in a Lidl store in Wokingham imploring customers not to purchase excessive quantities of cartons for fear of causing additional disruption.
Why is there a lack of eggs?
Bird Flu
Due to avian flu, millions of birds have been killed, resulting in a shortage of laying hens.
rising prices
The rising expenses of energy, gasoline, labor, and animal feed have harmed farmers.
A recent survey done by the British Free Range Producers Association (BFREPA) revealed that a third of farmers had lowered their flock sizes, halted production temporarily, or quit the business altogether.
BFREPA stated in a statement that while egg prices have increased by around 45p per dozen, many farmers have only earned 5-10p of that increase.
Fewer hens means fewer eggs, and we warned in March that there may be a shortage of eggs by the holiday season. As businesses and consumers prepare for Christmas, the egg supply typically tightens around this time of year, which may be compounding the situation.
Farmers must be paid a sustainable price in order to restore confidence and hope in the business.
The sale of eggs has been restricted to two per client at an Asda supermarket in Cardiff, with one woman taking a photo of a sign at her neighboring Coryton branch claiming the restriction was due to “poor availability.”
Asda rationed purchases of its budget lines earlier this year when items sold out, and there have also been shortages of fresh fruit due to severe weather in Europe. During the epidemic, eggs and flour were rationed in supermarkets.
Helen Watts, from the wholesale supplier Freshfields Farm Eggs in Cheshire, stated that avian flu had impacted supplies as a large number of birds had to be culled and that the situation was “gradually deteriorating.”
Charles Mears, a farmer in Waresley, Cambridgeshire, stated, ‘We’ve been telling people for a long time, but they’ve been expecting cheap food, which is simply not sustainable.
There will be no eggs by Christmas if the government does not intervene to aid producers.
In the 12 months leading up to the end of September, food inflation reached 14.6%, which contributed to the shortages.
There is no “immediate threat” to the food supply chain, including eggs, according to the Food and Farming Ministry (Defra).
The MailOnline has sought response from Sainsbury’s and Uber Eats.