Today, we’re calling on legislators around the world to ban caged farming to underpin the voluntary progress being made by businesses outlined in our new EggTrack 2023 report.

The report – which measures the progress made by food companies towards fulfilling their commitments on cage-free egg production for laying hens – shows that leading businesses across the globe have continued to make progress in 2023, in spite of global challenges such as bird flu and the war in Ukraine.

Public and legislative backing for cage-free practices

With leading food companies promoting higher animal welfare and evolving public opinion around the sentiment, CIWF is urging policymakers to introduce legislation to underpin the end of cages. Currently, there are 10 states that have banned the sale and production of caged eggs - Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Utah.

2023 progress

EggTrack monitors, tracks and encourages the successful voluntary transition to cage-free of the world’s largest food businesses. In 2023, 134 companies in the United States were monitored. Between them, they have made 147 cage-free commitments, of which 109 (74%) are reporting progress, with an average of 73% transition to cage-free. While the report shows that reporting in the U.S. fell by 2.7%, that is largely due to food businesses reporting globally for 2023, rather than domestically in 2022.

The average transition to cage-free eggs in Europe was 80%, and in the Asia- Pacific (APAC) region, which only began to be monitored in the 2022 EggTrack, an average transition rate of 57% was achieved. Despite the average overall year-on-year transition falling by 2.5% for commitments tracked in both the 2022 and 2023 iterations of EggTrack, cage-free transition at a global level increased by 6.9%, and 7.4% for companies in the APAC region.

Nine companies made new global cage-free commitments: Associated British Foods PLC, Bakkavor Group PLC, Brinker International Inc, CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc, Dairy Queen, Delaware North, McCormick & Company, Norwegian Cruise Line and The JM Smucker Company.

The Kraft Heinz Company, CVS, and Walgreens reached their goal of becoming 100% cage-free this year. Three companies have been included in EggTrack for the first time this year – Giant Eagle Inc., Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., and Southwest Food Service Excellence.

Move towards 100% global cage-free practices

We urge companies to be 100% cage-free throughout their global supply. That means their commitments should cover ALL regions in which they operate and include ALL egg categories such as shell eggs, egg products AND egg ingredients.

Ryan Robinson, U.S. Corporate Compliance Manager, Compassion in World Farming comments, "The voluntary and increased global commitments and continued progress highlighted throughout this report clearly demonstrate that food companies are focused on providing a cage-free future for egg-laying hens.”

Follow the cage-free conversation on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram at #EggTrack. To learn more and to see the full EggTrack 2023 Report visit www.eggtrack.com.