22 July 2021 – GCAW’s Laying Hen Welfare Working Group is focused on addressing the barriers to progress for member companies, and others, in achieving their cage-free egg objectives.
Members of GCAW’s Laying Hens Welfare Working Group have published their progress towards meeting cage-free egg commitments. Whilst this shows good progress in Europe and North America, there are challenges for progress in certain supply chains.
The working group has identified the procurement of cage-free processed egg ingredients as a key challenge in meeting global cage-free egg commitments. Specifically, the challenges centre on availability, cost and traceability of cage-free processed egg ingredients.
Consequently, the Laying Hen Welfare Working Group has decided to hold a public consultation to seek wider views on the potential for alternative supply chain models to facilitate procurement of cage-free processed egg ingredients. The supply chain models to be considered in the consultation are based on those described by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO): ‘Segregated’, ‘Mass Balance’ and ‘Book and Claim’. Further details of the consultation will be released shortly, interested stakeholders are encouraged to get in contact for information.
The current status of progress against cage-free egg commitments (download pdf).
GCAW’s Laying Hen Welfare Working Group has also recently published a formal position on combination systems for laying hens. The position recognises that combination systems cannot be considered a cage-free system and are therefore incompatible with corporate cage-free egg commitments. Further information can be found here.
