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Animal welfare standards remain a worry as chicken commitments wane

Food businesses have been hit with two stinging reports that outline a lack of effort and investment in improving the lives of animals in their supply chains.

The Chicken Track Report published in March by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), an NGO, showed that very few of the 93 most influential food companies in Europe will meet their 2026 deadline to align with all aspects of the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC, also known as the European Chicken Commitment, ECC).

The BCC is a “comprehensive set of science-based criteria that will, when used as a complete package, significantly improve the lives of millions of chickens reared for food”, according to CIWF. There are five main criteria, all of which need to be met for all the chickens in food company supply chains by 2026.

Slow progress on slower-growing breeds

In some areas, such as access to natural light and more humane slaughter, progress has been steady if not speedy. However, companies across Europe are really struggling to ensure all their chickens are from slower growing breeds and have more space.

Eataly (Italy), Premier Foods (UK) and Greggs (UK) are among the exceptions, having achieved respectively an 80% transition on use of slower growing breeds, a 65% overall transition across all criteria and a 65% transition on stocking density. Danone has managed to reach 61% on stocking density but only 18% of birds in its supply chain are slower growing.

Across all the manufacturers assessed, the transition to slower-growing birds remains below 10%, while 21% of chickens have the additional space required under the BCC. Supermarkets and companies offering meal kits have performed slightly better, with Carrefour, Casino, and Colruyt (Belgium) making more progress than many.

Restaurants are further behind. Major names like Burger King (UK and France) and Domino’s (Europe) are yet to source any chickens from slower-growing breeds. Of all the chicken sourced by KFC’s European outlets, just 2.5% is from the higher welfare, slower-growing breeds. The chain has already admitted defeat in reaching the BCC commitment by next year.

Failure to report

Many others will undoubtedly struggle too. Major European poultry producer 2 Sisters Food Group has managed only a 20% transition across all criteria (and offers no breakdown of this). Aldi and Lidl, the discount supermarkets, are reporting in some countries but not others.

As of March, 21 are not reporting at all, despite having enjoyed positive publicity in making a commitment – in some cases more than four years ago. Nestlé, which signed up to the BCC in June 2018, is among them. “As part of our commitment to source ingredients responsibly we will improve welfare standards for millions of chickens used in our food products in Europe, including our Herta, Buitoni, Wagner and Maggi ranges,” the food company said at the time.

CIWF was reserved in its criticism of the food corporates it is tracking closely (93 of the 380+ companies to have signed up to the BCC); the campaign group has a delicate balance to strike between pushing for action and not scaring current and potential signatories off.

Other groups have got wind of the failures and are beginning to apply pressure. The Humane League, for example, is targeting KFC UK & Ireland. Matthew Melton, corporate relations manager at the group told Ingredients Network that “one of the most pressing and wide-reaching animal welfare crises of our time is unfolding right now in the UK – the use of chickens bred to grow so fast their bodies simply can’t keep up. While it’s good to see companies giving their chickens more space, as many in the industry are now doing, until they stop using fast-growing breeds they are not doing nearly enough,” he added.

Farm animal benchmark produces worrying welfare results

It’s not just chickens where food companies have been found wanting. “Too many food companies still provide limited evidence that they are managing animal welfare effectively,” said Nicky Amos, executive director of the BBFAW as she launched the latest Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare.

The benchmark assesses 150 companies, across farm animal welfare policies, practices and performance based on 51 criteria spanning five pillars; then ranking firms in one of six tiers.

No company managed tier one, though four (Greggs, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Premier Foods) are in tier two. Progress for a majority of food companies is slow, however. Some 118 companies (79%), including Nestlé, McDonald’s, Tyson Foods and Cargill, are in the bottom two tiers (Tiers 5 and 6) – meaning they provide limited or no evidence that they have policies or processes in place to manage farm animal welfare effectively. 


This year’s BBFAW also identified an ‘Atlantic gap’ – while the UK is the highest-performing region, practically all North American food companies are stuck in the bottom two tiers of the benchmark.