Sodexo's commitments to improving animal welfare fit firmly into our responsible sourcing strategy as part of our work on sustainable agriculture. Our framework supports our corporate responsibility roadmap, Better Tomorrow 2025, and the needs of our clients. As we continue to advance our approach, periodic updates regarding our processes are an important aspect of demonstrating our progress in this space.

Today’s update shows that Sodexo is on track to meet our 100% cage-free egg goal by October of this year, on track to deliver our roadmap on broiler chicken welfare improvements, and a year ahead of schedule on our pork commitment for 100% free-to-roam systems with increased gestation crate-free product.

Sodexo’s dedication to transparency includes discussing the challenges in progress and reporting that’s based on detailed purchasing data. The backbone of our reporting will continue to be the annual process of a full year’s data, independently audited by a third party. However, more frequent updates like this throughout the year will provide further transparency of our progress.

As we continue down the path to meeting our commitments, please see our updates in three critical areas: cage-free eggs, broiler chicken welfare improvements and gestation crate-free use in pork production.

 

Cage-Free Eggs

In October 2022, we committed to reporting our progress and more specific projections to demonstrate the impact of our dedication toward our 100% cage-free goal. As previously announced, we expect that we can reach virtually 100% within a year of our October update.

We were expecting some system controls rolled out during August 2022 to have a positive impact on our monthly cage-free metric for September and October. Unfortunately, due to various factors, that impact was not realized. With support from the highest levels in Sodexo, we have been working with our cage-free egg suppliers, our distribution network and our business segments to take further action on stocking and controls. Our 12-month rolling metric as of November 30, 2022, is 78.2%.

Our new set of changes are predicted to shift our monthly metric for cage-free eggs upward by 8% in the month of February. Our next update will include monthly figures as well as the 12-month rolling metric, so that the direct impact of our actions is demonstrated.

 

Broiler Chicken Welfare Improvements

In relation to Sodexo’s commitment to improve the welfare of broiler chickens through the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), we are developing a roadmap on the various aspects of our chicken commitment for release in 2023. We are still committed to aligning with the BCC, particularly the recently revised requirements to roadmap by component. Our collective work through the Compassion in World Farming's U.S. Working Group for Broiler Welfare and direct engagement with our suppliers has helped us come to conclusions about timelines for the different components. We will continue to work with our suppliers to develop our Sodexo roadmap, which we will include in our next update.

 

Gestation Crate Use in Pork Production

In support of our dedication to progress to gestation crate-free pork, we are happy to announce that we have added Clemens Food Group to our supply chain. The Clemens product will further advance our shift to gestation crate-free pork as well as progressing toward our goal for 100% free-to-roam systems (which includes group-housed/reduced gestation crate and gestation crate-free) by the end of 2024, a full year earlier than previously committed. Similar to cage-free egg reporting, we will share our monthly metrics at our next update as well as the annual reporting we provide each July.

 

Additional information on our Animal Welfare and Responsible Sourcing approach is available at https://us.sodexo.com/corporate-responsibility/responsible-supply-chain.html.

 

Page Last Updated: February 9, 2023