Is your town centre cage free?

Online tool immediately reveals egg purchasing policies and cage-free commitments of popular food outlets.

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Courtesy Compassion in World Farming
Courtesy Compassion in World Farming

Consumers don’t always follow their demands for higher welfare animal products with spending on those products – failing to reward those organizations that have supplied them with what they say they want.

So the more ways that companies that do make the effort to ensure good welfare can be quickly and easily identified, helping consumers to follow through, the better.

A new, simple online tool in the U.K. allows consumers to identify food companies that sell, or have committed to sell, cage-free eggs either as whole eggs or as ingredients.

Helping the consumer

Is your town centre cage free?, recently was introduced by Compassion in World Farming. It allows consumers to quickly identify which major outlets use cage-free eggs either as whole eggs or ingredients.

Is your town centre cage free? details well-known cafes and shops, suppliers of food on the go and restaurants and bars. Clicking on each company’s logo in the tool’s virtual town center reveals not only whether it sources from cages, but also whether it has made a commitment to go cage free and, if so, by when that commitment will be met.

According to Compassion’s Jemina Jewell, head of food business, the map was designed to highlight the cage-free commitments of some of the U.K.’s most popular eateries, as there is strong consumer interest in these brands’ sourcing policies. The map makes it easy for consumers to access this information – and to show their support.

Having a clear public policy is vital, Jewell continues, as it gives everyone – including the company’s suppliers – clarity on exactly what the company is doing, and it means that companies can be held to account.

Coming to a town near you?

The virtual town center is a simple idea and, like most things these days, can easily be shared on social media and could even be developed into a phone app, whether for the U.K or any other market.

So, good news for those companies that have made a commitment: There is now something that can help them to reap the rewards. Not wanting to miss out, one major outlet is thought to have changed its egg-sourcing policy since the tool’s launch. And for those companies that are yet to do so, it might be time to get on the map.

 

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