Shoppers will no longer be able to pick up free-range eggs from today in some of the UK's biggest supermarkets, including Morrisons and Sainsbury's.
Supermarkets across the country will now have to mark their eggs with stickers and labels calling them 'barn eggs' to show that they have been produced by hens permanently in doors.
It comes as birds have not been allowed outside since November as a result of an outbreak of Avian Flu, meaning they have had to be kept indoors.
It will be the first time in years that many major UK supermarkets have put non free-range eggs back on shelves, as many of them have had policies in place to only sell free-range, reports The Telegraph.
Alongside the label changes, supermarkets will also now have to have signs in place explaining the reason for the switch.
Birds reared for meat and eggs were ordered to be kept indoors since last autumn in the face of the outbreak. And now the length of time they have been kept indoors means their eggs can no longer be labelled as free-range.
Farmers were hopeful the government would lift the housing order this month, but after new avian flu outbreaks in the past week, officials have decided to keep the order in place.
The UK has not been alone in being affected by avian flu outbreaks this year, with continental Europe suffering one of its worst winters for the disease too.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The 16-week grace period we allowed for free-range eggs has now been exceeded, and eggs must now be marketed as ‘barn eggs’.
"We have worked closely with the sector and retailers to implement these changes as smoothly as possible.” The British Retail Consortium said that supermarkets would be providing signage to explain the change to consumers, but that “when the current measures are lifted, eggs will go back to being free-range”.
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