McDonald’s to begin using cage-free eggs

Sep 30, 2015

By 2025, all restaurants in Canada and USA will use cage-free eggs

As consumer demands continue to change and get louder, businesses in all sectors have to adapt or they risk losing potential revenues.

Fast food chain McDonald’s understands this and decided to transition to cage-free eggs in its Canadian and American restaurants – about 16,000 of them, by 2025.

Eggs

“Our customers are increasingly interested in knowing more about their food and where it comes from,” said McDonald’s USA President Mike Andres in a release. “Our decision to source only cage-free eggs reinforces the focus we place on food quality and our menu to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations.

On average, McDonald’s USA buys about two billion eggs annually while McDonald’s Canada purchases about 120 million eggs each year to use on their breakfast menu. Since 2011, McDonald’s USA has purchased more than 13 million cage-free eggs each year.

“We’re proud of the work we’re doing with farmers and suppliers to advance environmentally and socially conscious practices for the animals in our supply chain,” said Marion Gross, senior vice president and Chief Supply Chain Officer of McDonald’s North America in a press release. “This is a bold move and we’re confident in our ability to provide a quality, safe, and consistent supply.”

The announcement to use cage-free eggs comes after McDonald’s announced that by 2017 the company would only use chicken that’s raised without antibiotics important to human medicine and to offer jugs of low-fat white milk and fat-free chocolate milk from cows that haven’t been treated with the growth hormone rbST.

Join the conversation and tell us, as a poultry farmer, how you feel about McDonald’s making the transition to use cage-free eggs.

Video: 2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science: "Using science to assess and improve the welfare of dairy cattle"

Dan Weary is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and Doctorate at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. His research focuses on understanding the perspectives of animals and applying these insights to develop methods of assessing animal welfare and improving the lives of animals. His work has helped drive changes in practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of social housing for pre-weaned calves). He also studies cow comfort and lameness, social interactions among cows, and interactions between cows, human handlers and technologies like automated millking systems that are increasingly used on farms. His presentation will outline key questions in cattle welfare, highlight recent UBC research addressing them, and showcase innovative methods for improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers.