General Mills Announces New Cage-Free Egg Commitment

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (April 20, 2011)- On the heels of the release of its 2011 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, food manufacturing giant General Mills announced a new cage-free egg purchasing program, prompting praise from The Humane Society of the United States. The company has committed to switch 1 million of its eggs to cage-free.

General Mills is the latest in a growing list of food manufacturers that are moving away from eggs from hens confined in cages, which provide each bird less space than a sheet of paper on which to spend her entire life.

"General Mills and the food manufacturing industry are helping the push to move the egg industry away from confining hens in cruel and inhumane cages," said Josh Balk, director of corporate policy for The HSUS' factory farming campaign. "The Humane Society of the United States applauds General Mills for improving the lives of animals with this important step."

Prior to this announcement, General Mills committed to moving all the eggs in its Häagen-Dazs product line in Europe to cage-free. Major food manufacturers Kraft, Otis Spunkmeyer and Sara Lee are switching millions of eggs in their products to cage-free. Unilever recently adopted a policy to convert 100 percent of its eggs to cage-free, including the 350 million eggs used annually by Hellmann's mayonnaise. Major restaurant chains-including Subway, Burger King, Wendy's, Denny's, Sonic, Quiznos, Hardee's, Carl's Jr. and Red Robin-use cage-free eggs. And supermarket chains including Wal-Mart, Costco and Safeway have taken steps to increase cage-free egg sales.