The updated commitment, which now includes Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, states, “We’ll fully transition in the United States and Canada by 2020 and in Europe and the rest of the world by 2025, except for Russia, Ukraine and China.” The company also stated that it will establish timelines for those three nations by mid-2018.
Chetana Mirle, director of HSI Farm Animals, said: “We congratulate Mondelēz International for its leadership in animal welfare, particularly in emerging markets. The company’s expanded cage-free policy is a clear sign that battery cages have no place in the global food industry. We look forward to working with Mondelēz International, and other companies, to achieve a 100% cage-free egg supply across the world.”
The majority of egg-laying hens around the world are confined for their whole lives in cages so small they cannot even fully stretch their wings. In battery cages, each bird has less space to spend her entire life than the size of a sheet of paper. The use of conventional battery cages for laying hens is banned or being phased out under laws or regulations throughout the EU, six US states, New Zealand and Bhutan. The majority of states in India, which is the world’s third largest egg producer, have declared that the use of battery cages violates the country’s animal welfare legislation, and the country is debating a national ban.
Mondelēz International joins other companies, including Unilever, General Mills, Sodexo, Compass Group, Aramark, AccorHotels and Intercontinental Hotels Group in adopting global cage-free egg policies.
