The short answers to the things people ask us most. For the full story on egg codes, see our Egg Code Explainer.
How does EggTracker actually work?
You enter the code stamped on your egg along with your postcode. We look up the postcode area registered for that producer number and use online mapping data to estimate the distance between the two. That's it -- no account, no app, just a lookup.
What does the code on my egg mean?
The first digit tells you the farming method: 0 for Organic, 1 for Free-range, 2 for Barn, 3 for Cage. After that comes a two-letter country code (e.g. UK) and then a producer ID that identifies the specific farm.
For the full breakdown with pictures, see What are the codes on eggs? If a term on the box has you stumped, our egg & farming terms glossary covers the rest.
Why don't you show the exact farm address?
We deliberately only ever work with the postcode area, never a full address. Not every producer wants to be precisely identifiable, so keeping things vague is a design choice, not a data gap -- it's how the tool is built, not a setting we could switch off.
How accurate are the distances?
They're an estimate based on the straight postcode-to-postcode route, assuming your egg travelled directly from the producer to you. In reality it likely passed through a packing station or distribution centre first, so the real food miles are usually higher than what we show, not lower.
My code came back as "not found" -- what does that mean?
It means that producer number isn't in our records yet, not that anything is wrong with your egg. We keep our own list of known UK producer codes and try to keep it current, but new ones do slip through. Let us know and we'll look into adding it.
Do you store my personal information?
We log the postcode area you entered, the egg type, where you said you bought it, and the resulting distance -- that's what feeds the aggregate numbers on Our Findings. We don't ask for your name or a full address. See our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy for the full detail.
Is EggTracker official, or linked to a supermarket or the government?
No. It started as a personal side-project back in 2008, spun off from FoodMiles.com, and isn't affiliated with any supermarket, producer, or government body. Read our full story, or find out where the egg-code system itself came from.
I've found a problem, or I have an idea -- who do I tell?
Get in touch -- we're always keen to hear ideas, and doubly keen to hear about anything that's broken. We built this for fun, so please be kind!