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After trying a locally bought "free range" Egg recently and finding it to be totally devoid of any taste or colour to the yolk (pale, sickly yellow) I decided to try and trace its origin. Following the Salmonella debacle in the late 80's and the resulting "Lion" mark on Eggs along with the obligatory number now stamped on every Egg I thought that this would be a quick job. The website that traces Eggs does not recognise the number on my Egg and a search on Google found no trace whatsoever of the Farm named on the box so I thought I would give Trading Standards a bell to see if they could shed any light on the matter. Turns out that my local TS is now twinned with one in a faraway county and , as I gave the fellow my address, the question "Buckingham, Sir....which county is that in?" gave me little confidence. However, they suggested that I try DEFRA. Finally managed to speak to someone at DEFRA who knew what a chicken was but he said that it was not really their "thing" and that I should speak to the Egg Marketing Board - he would give me their email details because he assured me that they never answered the phone - in fact he had never had a email answered but I might be luckier? Turns out that the EMB closed down in 1971 so that could be why they no longer answer the phone?? Eventually I contacted the APHA (Animal and Plant Agency) who, apparently, deal with these issues. "We do have a couple of ladies that deal with non Lion marked Eggs", I was informed, "but I don't think they can trace them and they don't work Fridays". Contacting them again on Monday the "Ladies" were out of the office and it would be best to email them so I did....2 weeks ago tomorrow and still not the decency of a reply. With all the costs and Regs. forced on the producers of our foods by the Government and the EU isn't it wonderful to see that those in power are doing their bit