The grading centre runs on high-technology Mobba equipment and performs several key steps in the chain.

As the eggs arrive at the plant they are sorted by hand to remove any that are dirty or broken. Those in good condition then pass through a UV disinfection system that uses ultraviolet light against salmonella.

Next, a candling camera inspects the eggs to remove any that are cracked and, finally, a machine known as crack detection looks for hairline cracks — invisible to the human eye — and separates out the damaged eggs.

Once these controls have been passed, we stamp the eggs with the farm code, grade them by weight and pack them. They are normally shipped on pallets of 11,880 eggs, or in boxes of 360 eggs that make up a pallet.

These are the weight grades we work with:

Once packed, the eggs go into temperature-controlled stores so that their properties remain intact until they are dispatched.