Operations

McDonald's meets cage-free egg goal 2 years early

Photo: McDonald's

February 7, 2024

McDonald's has met its goal of sourcing 100% cage free eggs in the U.S. by 2025. It's a goal the company set in 2015, according to a press release.

The brand purchased nearly 2 billion eggs in 2023 for its U.S. operators.

On a cage-free farm, hens are housed in an open environment that allows birds freedom to express their natural behaviors and includes enrichments such as perches, scratch areas and nests. Each McDonald's-supplying egg farm in the U.S. has an attending veterinarian who helps lead training and education for the staff to help ensure a high level of care.

The goal was met in partnership with Cargill and its egg producers.

"As a family, we sat down and said, 'Are we going to be able to do it?'," Peter Forsman, owner of Forsman Farms, a source of McDonald's eggs, said in the release. "We had zero cage-free systems, and we knew this was going to be a big challenge."

"Our journey to move to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs in the U.S. was a huge undertaking — made uniquely possible by our owner/operators, Cargill and their egg producers, and our supply chain working together as one team," Bob Stewart, SVP, North America chief supply chain officer for McDonald's, said in the release. "I am incredibly proud of what we achieved together and the positive impact we will continue to make on the path toward a more sustainable future."