McDonald’s to start phasing out eggs from caged hens

In a move that would have significant implications for US and Canadian egg producers, McDonald's Corp announced that it would start phasing out the use of eggs from hens housed in cages.

The company sources around 2 billion shell and liquid eggs annually, or a little over 4 per cent of the 43.56 billion eggs produced in the US last year.

With the national announcement last week of providing its breakfast menu through out the day, the company expected to buy even more eggs (See: McDonald's to offer all-day breakfast from 6 October).

For instance, the Egg McMuffin, in which one egg per sandwich is used, is among the company's most popular items.

According to commentators, with less than 10 per cent of the US' laying hens housed as ''cage-free,'' it could take McDonald's as long as 10 years to reach its goal of 100 per cent from  ''aviary systems,'' that allow chickens to move freely up and down tiers and among nesting areas inside barns.

With increasing consumer demand and public pressure, the eggs had commanded a premium price. Retailers had marked them up less sharply recently to mitigate the impact of a deadly avian flu that had killed millions of laying hens this year.

The long-awaited switch was happening with North American egg suppliers slowly starting to rebuild flocks after the worst bird flu outbreak in US history.

Burger King had already committed to using only cage-free eggs by 2017, while other companies such as Starbucks, General Mills , Nestle, Sodexo  and Aramark were also in the process of switching.

Groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Mercy for Animals and World Animal Protection had also lobbied with many corporate to adopt animal welfare practices.

Such groups had also won commitments from around 100 major companies for phasing out so-called gestation crates, which were small cages for breeding sows.