The US Working Group for Broiler Welfare

Members

In recognition of the collaboration needed to improve broiler chicken welfare, seven leading food and restaurant companies – Aramark, Compass Group, Nestlé USA, Panera Bread, Shake Shack, Sodexo, and Target – have come together to form the US Working Group for Broiler Welfare. The Working Group operationalizes discussions fostered through Compassion in World Farming’s work with individual companies as well as its annual Better Chicken Leadership Forum, which has brought together over 50 companies to discuss broiler science and welfare strategy.

“As this Working Group aligns with Sodexo’s global animal welfare position, we embrace the opportunity to work collectively to improve broiler chicken welfare and foster better engagement with the industry as a whole.”
- Judy Panayos, Senior Director Sustainability, Supply Management, Sodexo

“I am thrilled to join the Working Group as we push to improve broiler chicken welfare across the industry. Shake Shack’s focus on premium ingredients, thoughtful sourcing and animal welfare has always been core to who we are. We’re looking forward to learning from and collaborating with our peers to better understand barriers and potential solutions for accelerating improvements more broadly.”
- Jeffrey Amoscato, SVP Supply Chain & Menu Innovation, Shake Shack

“Bringing restaurant leaders together in the Working Group will help us collaborate and innovate across all parts of this important transition—from impacts on farmers to measurement of animal care. These discussions will help us as we continually strive to provide responsibly raised proteins.”
- Sara Burnett, VP of Food Values, Sustainability and Public Affairs, Panera Bread

Purpose

Facilitated by Compassion and Blue House Sustainability Consulting, the Working Group aims to support members in exploring workable strategies and creative solutions for transitioning supply chains through the lens of the Better Chicken Commitment, which outlines baseline standards for the following key welfare components:

Breed selection
Space allocation
Environmental enrichments
Slaughter method
Third-party auditing

Chickens in a brightly lit enriched indoor environment with big windows, some birds sit on straw bales.

To date, over 200 US brands have committed to improving welfare standards in alignment with the Better Chicken Commitment. The learnings from this Working Group will be a resource for these companies, enabling them to progress towards their commitments to meaningfully improve the welfare of the broiler chickens in their supply chains.

Blue House Sustainability Consulting is led by Mindy Gomes Casseres, an expert with more than 20 years experience in helping global Fortune 500 companies craft leading sustainability strategies and communications.