EggTrack

Converting to cage-free eggs

Many of the world’s most influential food companies have made commitments to move to a cage free egg supply by 2025 or sooner. Check out our latest Global EggTrack Report to see which companies are progressing towards their global, regional or national cage-free commitments.

In order for companies to fulfil their pledges and meet the growing demand for cage free eggs, they need to invest in the right systems, get contracts in place with their suppliers and pace their transition.

Invest in the best

Egg producers need to ensure that they invest in the best systems, so the birds not only have good health and physical condition, but good mental wellbeing and are able to express their repertoire of natural behaviours.

Companies need to work with their suppliers and invest in production systems that are fit for purpose to ensure that the animals experience a good quality of life and are fit for the future too by meeting consumer expectation of what is an acceptable cage-free system. 

Watch the video to find out more...

Future-proofing investment is critical to commercial sustainability and involves preparing for upcoming issues, such as the need to operate without beak trimming and maintaining good feather coverage, and the need to improve keel bone condition.

The cage-free market is well established in Europe, where over 50% of hens are currently reared in cage-free systems. In the US it is rapidly expanding and there are promising signs of emerging cage-free markets in other regions of the world.

However, over 60% of the world’s eggs are still produced in industrialised systems, most using battery cages, so any global company that has made a cage-free commitment in one region of their supply chain must address this issue in other regions too, especially in regions where cage-free markets are still a small proportion of overall production.

Key considerations

Read more about how to design your cage-free housing and how to develop a successful cage-free supply chain below.

New content

Since 2007, the Good Egg Award has recognised companies that use or have committed (within five years) to use cage-free eggs or egg products.

To date more than 99 million laying hens are set to benefit each year from our award winners’ policies.

It takes more than 6.5 billion laying hens to produce the eggs required for the global egg market, with over 60% of hens kept in industrialised caged systems.

Minimum conditions for the protection of laying hens are set out in the EU Directive (Council Directive 1999/74/EC), which has banned the use of the barren battery cage since 1 January 2012. 

In the EU, there are over 360 million laying hens kept for egg production each year, and around 38 million in the UK. Over 50% are housed in cages, the majority of which are ‘enriched’ cages, which although legal in the EU, are still confinement systems.

In the USA, nearly all laying hens are confined in barren battery cages.

Hens start laying regularly at around 18-20 weeks of age and commercially they lay for just over a year before being sent for slaughter. Most of their lives are therefore spent in confinement.

This section contains a welfare potential matrix of the different production systems used for laying hens, as well as a summary of the key welfare issues of these production systems.

For producers converting to cage-free systems, there is a practical guide on the key features of a higher welfare system for laying hens.

You can also read about the welfare of laying hens in alternative systems (summary or full information sheet) and get informed about specific welfare issues such as feather coverage and beak trimming (summary or full information sheet), and how to assess welfare on farm.

Or find out how Compassion's welfare criteria for laying hens compare with other welfare schemes here.

There is also information available about egg production in the EU and the consumer perception of eggs.