Farmers have been thrown into turmoil after the competition regulator ruled that there was little difference between pigs that spent their entire lives outdoors and those that were born free but were then reared in intensively farmed conditions.

Consumers were unable to distinguish between the production methods of "free range" and "bred free range", so both were equally legitimate, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled in its dismissal of a complaint.

Both sides of the fledgling free range pork industry insist that its interpretation of free range is the more accurate. There is no legal definition of free range pork.