Sodexo eggs will all be cage-free globally by 2025

Sodexo is the latest multinational company to make a cage-free pledge.

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Foto por Austin Alonzo
Foto por Austin Alonzo

Sodexo S.A. is expanding its cage-free egg pledges to cover its global operations.

On July 25, the Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, food services company announced it will source only cage-free eggs, both in shell and liquid form, at its operations in 80 countries around the world by 2025.

Sodexo already sources cage-free eggs in Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. It sources cage-free shell eggs in North America and is committed to source all liquid eggs from cage-free operations by the end of 2020.

Sodexo wants to help global egg industry transition to cage-free

In a statement, Michel Franceschi, Sodexo Group’s senior vice president of supply management, said the company’s goal is to contribute to the transformation of the whole industry.

“We will gather all the actors around the table in order to accompany the conversion and the evolution of the local industry so that by 2025, we will be able to source cage-free eggs from local producers in each country where we operate,” Franceschi said in a statement.

A release from Sodexo said the commitment advances its mission to contribute to the economic, social and environmental development of the regions where it operates.

“For a company like Sodexo … who sources approximately a quarter of a billion shell eggs worldwide on an annual basis, addressing animal welfare is a significant undertaking, due to the complexities of our supply chain and differences in agriculture practices around the world,” Neil Barrett, Sodexo Group’s senior vice president of sustainable development, said in a statement. “We are focused on building partnerships with suppliers, authorities and farm animal welfare (non-governmental organizations), to achieve progress and educate stakeholders about the issue.”

Company working with animal welfare groups

In a release, Sodexo said it’s taking advice from organizations like Compassion in World Farming, Humane Society International and The Humane League to figure out how it can meet its international goal within nine years.

In its own release, the animal welfare activism group said the announcement “symbolizes the cage-free movement is now extending globally, after sweeping success with US food businesses.”

"Sodexo's global commitment to go cage-free shows that the cage-free movement is not limited to the U.S.,” Rachel Dreskin, Compassion in World Farming’s U.S. Head of Food Business, said in a statement. “Keeping animals in cages will never be accepted by consumers in the US, or anywhere else across the globe. Sodexo is stepping up and leading a charge to transform global egg supply chains."

Sodexo has worked on international animal welfare policies with Compassion in World Farming for four years, the release said. The organization’s stated goal is to “end all cruel factory farming practices.”

In the U.S., cage-free is quickly becoming the dominant force in the egg industry as major restaurants and retailers commit to sell only cage-free eggs in the near future.

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