What are FREE Range Hen Eggs anyway?

"The USDA allows labeling eggs as "free range eggs" if they are from a farm that allows the hen access to an outside area for at least five minutes each day. Nowhere is it stipulated that the hen actually has to go outside; it only has to have the access to do so for at least five minutes in each 24-hour period." (Full article)

We might add that this also does not specify what "outside" means. Is it merely a part of the cage open to the sky? Nor does it specify how large the "outside" area must be – or even if it must include access to the earth. In other words, the use of such phrases often are advertising ploys based on deception, and they are fully approved by the FDA.


I guess its not the big farm and blue skies Rio thought the chickens lived in.  Oh well, guess truth in labeling does not count here?