Krispy Kreme made its original announcement in 2016 to transition to 100% cage-free eggs company-wide. The company website recently stated that they are on pace to convert 75% of their global system and 100% of U.S. Branded Sweet Treat products to cage-free by the end of 2021 and use 100% cage-free eggs globally by 2026. The information can be referenced in the responsible sourcing commitment released on the company website.
Krispy Kreme ranks in the top 50 largest quick service restaurant chains, with more than 1,400 stores in 25 countries. They are currently operating with cage-free eggs in Russia, the UK, South Africa, and Turkey.
Au Bon Pain cage-free update
ABP released their 100% cage-free egg policy on their website, committing them to make the switch globally by 2025. “We intend to work with our supply chain partners to source and use only cage-free eggs and egg products in all locations by 2025,” stated the quick-service restaurant chain.
The company is comprised of over 200 locations, with one-third of them located in Asia. Au Bon Pain’s global cage-free egg commitment came soon after Texas-based Ampex Brands purchased the chain in June 2021.
The catch
While companies continue to make the pledges to go 100% cage free in the coming years, the cage-free conversion has been predicted to slow down in 2021. After asking egg producers how they thought the entire US layer flock would be housed in 2025, the average response was that 44.7% would be cage-free. To reach 44.7%, housing for more than 13 million hens per year would need to be converted to cage-free each year for the next five years.
Additionally, a common debate about the cage-free egg commitments is the lack of transparency or updates from the companies on how they are working towards the goal. Chad Gregory, President and CEO of the United Egg Producers, previously stated that the amount of birds that need to be switched to cage-free, the cost to do it, and the amount of time they have to do it in is financially and logistically impossible, when speaking of the five year time frame that companies have to fulfill their commitments.
