Scotland removes 12‑week cap on free‑range poultry meat

If you buy turkey, goose or duck in Scotland this winter, you may still see “free‑range” on the pack even if birds have been kept indoors for disease control. Ministers have approved regulations that remove the old 12‑week limit on using the label during legal housing measures that restrict outdoor access. The Scottish Parliament signed off the change in the autumn, with officials saying the update would apply during temporary orders to protect animal or public health.

Let’s break down what “free‑range” means for poultry meat. Under Commission Regulation 543/2008, birds must have continuous daytime access to open‑air runs for at least half of their life, meet set stocking densities, and follow feed rules. “Traditional free‑range” adds slower‑growing breeds and higher minimum slaughter ages, while “free‑range-total freedom” means access to open runs of unlimited area. These are production‑method claims, not marketing slogans.

Why was a time limit there at all? The EU text allowed producers to keep the free‑range reference during housing measures but “under no circumstances for more than 12 weeks”. During recent avian influenza seasons, some housing periods ran longer-especially for turkeys-creating a labelling problem: farms raised birds to free‑range standards, but the claim had to drop after week 12. Lawmakers in the UK said this needed fixing.

Scotland’s amendment changes that balance. The new wording recognises restrictions that temporarily limit outdoor access and removes the sentence that capped the label at 12 weeks. In practice, if authorities issue a lawful housing order to protect public or animal health, producers can keep using “free‑range” for as long as that temporary order lasts. The instrument published on legislation.gov.uk sets out these edits to Annex 5 of Regulation 543/2008.

England has already made an equivalent fix by disapplying the 12‑week sentence for poultry meat marketed there and allowing the claim to remain for the duration of any such restriction. Wales introduced similar rules in late October 2025. Taken together, the approach across Great Britain is now broadly aligned for poultry meat.

For you as a shopper, the key point is that the label describes the rearing method across the bird’s life, not the weather on slaughter day. During a housing order, birds may be indoors for biosecurity, but farms must still satisfy all other free‑range rules-outdoor access for at least half the life outside the restricted spell, stocking densities and feed standards-and claims remain enforceable.

This is also a strong classroom case study. It shows how food law balances disease control with truthful labelling and how one precise word-“temporary”-matters. Prompt students to ask who decides when housing starts and ends, how long “temporary” can be, and what evidence supports a producer’s claim. It’s a practical way to build media‑and‑label literacy.

Don’t confuse meat rules with egg rules. Free‑range eggs are regulated separately. Scotland updated egg labelling in November 2024 and England followed in January 2025, so a similar no‑time‑limit approach during housing orders already applies to eggs. This poultry meat change simply brings the meat rules in line with what shoppers have seen on eggs.

Behind the scenes, these updates edit Annex 5 of Commission Regulation 543/2008-retained in UK law after Brexit as “assimilated” law. The Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Islands Committee recommended approval in September, and ministers have now signed the instrument. Knowing the exact legal backbone helps you check claims with confidence.

Bottom line for the season ahead: when you see “free‑range” on a Scottish turkey, it should signal the farm met recognised free‑range standards before and after any housing order, and that any indoor period was a lawful, temporary biosecurity step-not a permanent change in how the birds were raised.