Egg Quality Assurance™: Helping retailers meet consumer needs through transparency
December 7, 2021
To address consumers’ growing desire to be informed about the food they buy at the grocery store, Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC) launched the Egg Quality Assurance™ (EQA®) certification program in 2019. An easily identifiable symbol, the EQA® mark on egg cartons shows consumers the eggs they are buying are top-quality and produced by a local farmer. Although the mark has been around for more than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly emphasized the importance of including this mark on egg packaging.
Let’s take a deeper dive and learn why.
What’s trending?
The COVID-19 pandemic saw Canadians band together in a way never seen before. Whether they were raising funds for their local restaurant or dropping off banana bread on their neighbour’s porch, Canadians shifted their focus to supporting each other and keeping things local.
This commitment extended to the way they shop for food, including eggs. A survey facilitated by EFC found that 2 out of 3 Canadians believe it is now more important than ever that the eggs they buy come from Canada.1 Canadians also place importance on egg safety, quality, and the care of hens. When asked about eggs, 9 out of 10 Canadians felt that a quality symbol on Canadian egg cartons would reassure them that those eggs met national standards.2 Additionally, 86% of Canadians trust the quality and safety of eggs coming from Canadian egg farms.3
Meeting consumer needs, right in the fridge
The EQA® program shows Canadians, right on the carton, that no matter what type of eggs they choose, they are fresh, local, high-quality, and produced by Canadian farmers. EQA® highlights the rigorous requirements in place on Canadian egg farms. All certified eggs have met the high standards of EFC’s on-farm food safety program, Start Clean-Stay Clean®, and Animal Care Program.
Since the launch of the EQA® certification program, more and more retailers are opting to leverage this important tool to highlight their local, made-in-Canada eggs. The easy-to-identify EQA® mark allows retailers to maintain consumer trust and showcase the industry’s collective commitment to delivering a high-quality product. In fact, 74% of Canadians say that seeing EQA® on egg cartons assures them that their grocer is selling eggs that come from Canadian farms meeting the highest quality standards.4
Canadian retailers interested in displaying the EQA® mark on their private label egg cartons can do so through a simple, no-cost licensing process. To learn more about EQA® or how to use the mark, contact eqa@eggs.ca or visit the retailer section of the eggquality.ca website.
1 EFC EQA® National Omnibus, November 2020 
2 EFC National EQA® Omnibus February 2019
3 EFC EQA® National omnibus, March 2021
4 EFC EQA® National Omnibus, March 2021
