Sainsbury's, J D Wetherspoon and McDonald's named "Good Eggs" for helping millions of hens out of cages
Sainsbury's, J D Wetherspoon and McDonald's are among household companies named "Good Eggs" by leading farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming for switching to a more ethical egg supply - saving around 2.5 million hens from living in horrendous conditions.
The Good Egg Awards, announced today (20 March) in Brussels, reward companies who are choosing free-range or barn eggs instead of eggs from battery caged hens. Other UK winners are Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Pret A Manger and Starbucks, The Eden Project and the in-house catering of Microsoft UK and Google.
"The Good Egg Awards aim to recognise companies that are making significant progress on the welfare of egg laying hens," says Rowen West-Henzell, Food Policy Officer at Compassion in World Farming.
"Improving animal welfare practice makes good business sense. We know from surveys of European public opinion that laying hens are one of the top animals that consumers are concerned about, so eggs are a good place to start. It's great to see leading companies responding to their customers concerns so well.
"For companies such as Sainsbury's this new move signals a sea change in policy on animal welfare and demonstrates they're serious about ethical responsibility. CIWF urges other companies to consider animal welfare as an intrinsic part of their corporate social responsibility and commit to going cage-free," says Ms West-Henzell.
The demand for higher animal welfare eggs is on the increase - 30 per cent of eggs consumed in the UK are now cage-free compared to just 10 per cent in the mid 90s.
This growing trend is having an impact on businesses. More and more companies are making improvements to their animal welfare standards in response to public demand and scientific evidence showing that cages are bad for the welfare of laying hens.
This year's Good Egg Awards is the first in an annual event. Compassion in World Farming will be urging more and more leading retail, food manufacturing, food service and procurement companies to adopt higher animal welfare policies, by going cage-free.
UK winners: J D Wetherspoon, McDonald's, Marks & Spencer, Pret A Manger, Sainsbury's, Starbucks, The Eden Project, Wholefoods Market, Waitrose, Ugo Foods Group Ltd, House of Commons and the staff catering of Google, Microsoft UK and Sky.
