U.S. egg producers continue to convert their operations to cage-free laying systems as supermarket and retail chains in North America have committed to only use eggs from cage-free sources.
Every major grocery chain in the United States made commitments to transition their egg supplies to cage-free eggs. According to a commitment tracker webpage, brought to WATT Global Media’s attention by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), some retailers are already exclusively selling cage-free eggs. Those retailers include Whole Foods Market, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Earth Fare, PCC Natural Markets and Nugget Markets.
However, most retailers in the United States and Canada, including the many of the largest ones, are still making the transition to selling only cage-free eggs. Five retailers have pledged to phase out cage-raised eggs by the end of this year. Those chains are Raley’s, The Fresh Market, Gelson’s Markets, Heinen’s and Harmons.
Two retail chains – Sprouts Farmers Market and Hy-Vee – announced commitments to convert to only selling cage-free eggs by 2022.
All others have pledged to complete the conversion by either 2025 or 2026, with the vast majority of those companies choosing 2025 as their completion dates.
See this infographic to see who made cage-free egg commitments, and the dates they plan to complete the transition:
In addition to retailers, a large number of restaurant chains, foodservice providers, food manufacturers and processors, distributors, and companies within the hospitality industry (hotels, theme parks, cruise lines, casinos, resorts and airlines) have also made commitments. Infographics that list those companies are also being published on WATTAgNet.
Presently, laws have been passed in California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Michigan that will require all eggs produced and/or sold in their state come from cage-free laying systems. Additionally, similar legislation is under consideration in Maine, Arizona, Hawaii and Colorado.
