Food Industry Leaders in Asia Commit to Sourcing Cage-Free Eggs

Food industry leaders in Asia and around the world have committed to sourcing their eggs from cage-free environments, the Humane Society International (HSI) reports.

HSI recently brought together leading restaurants, food service, and hospitality companies in Indonesia for the country’s first-ever corporate animal welfare roundtable. Cage-free eggs, in particular, were a hot topic at the meeting.

“We’re thrilled to host Indonesia’s first corporate animal welfare roundtable and bring together forward-thinking companies that are committed to higher animal welfare standards in their supply chains,” Dawn Neo, HSI’s corporate outreach manager for farm animals, said in a statement. She added, “We want to help ensure that companies have all of the tools and resources they need to make a cage-free future for laying hens a reality.”

The head of The Southern Branch of the Vietnamese Department of Livestock Production, Do Huu Phuong, attended the meeting in Jakarta, along with representatives from Sodexo, one of the biggest food service companies in the world. Sodexo spoke of its cage-free commitment in Indonesia and around the globe.

“When Sodexo made a worldwide commitment to source cage-free eggs a couple of years ago, we were the first in our sector to do so, in support of responsible and sustainable business practices,” Roshith Rajan, director of corporate responsibility for Sodexo Asia Pacific, said. “Today it is heartening to see more than 200 companies from across industries joining the cage-free movement in making commitments and demonstrating where the market is headed.”

“As a company that provides Quality of Life services to millions every day, we aspire to create a better tomorrow for everyone,” Rajan added.

In the UK, Noble Foods, the nation’s largest egg-producer, recently committed to going cage-free by 2025. The decision was made in response to animal rights organizations, such as the Humane League, who collected 68,000 signatures urging Noble Foods to go cage-free.

“Now our mission has been heard loud and clear,” Pru Elliot, Head of Campaigns at the Humane League, stated regarding the announcement from Noble Foods. “The public simply won’t stand for animal cruelty. This marks a historical landmark in the UK and it is clear that so-called enriched cages are soon to be consigned to the history books.”