Cage-Free Eggs Initiative
#BetterCageFree
The traffic light for animal welfare
In our new informative campaign, you can find out which brands and supermarkets still use eggs from caged hens.
Our Cage-free Eggs initiative aims to collaborate with key stakeholders in the poultry, retail and food service sectors, to reach realistic agreements that will facilitate the transition to a cage-free egg production system.
All code 3 eggs (the first number in the series printed on the shell) come from hens that spend their entire lives in cages. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture, more than 35 million hens are forced to live in cages in Spain. Each bird has only slightly more space than a sheet of paper.
Cage-Free Eggs
Egg production in cages is completely banned in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria. In Germany, it will be banned in 2025. In Slovakia in 2030. In other European countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands or Belgium, less than 40% of their production is currently caged. In Spain, 77% of laying hens are kept in cages.
Leading animal welfare scientists agree that animal confinement in cages seriously reduces their welfare. Therefore, the cage-rearing system has obtained the lowest score in animal welfare in several scientific studies
In the cages each hen has a living space of little more than the surface of a sheet of paper.
67% of public opinion in Spain is in favor of eliminating cages for laying hens in all of the European Union. This opinion aligns with the European Citizens' Initiative, End the Cage Age.
If you would like to learn more about the poultry sector and public opinion towards it, you can download the full report here, or read a summary on our blog here.
Large companies in the food sector have publicly committed to stop using eggs from caged hens
European welfare legislation for food animals stipulates that "an animal's freedom of movement must not be restricted in such a way as to cause unnecessary suffering". It also states that "where an animal is continuously or regularly confined, it must be provided with appropriate space for its psychological and ethological needs, in accordance with accumulated experience and scientific knowledge".
European Convention for the Protection of Animals intended for Consumption
"Eggs produced in systems that demonstrate improved animal welfare have an added value, and are therefore of higher quality”.
María Villaluenga, press officer and spokesperson for Equalia
This initiative has been possible in part by grants from the Center for Effective Altruism, Pollination Project and the Open Philanthropy Project Fund, an advisory fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
