Working to Improve Farm Animal Welfare

What is Nestlé’s policy on the treatment of farm animals?

The health and welfare of animals in our supply chain is important to us and our consumers. We are committed to identifying opportunities to further build on our efforts to help bring positive change to the treatment of farm animals in our U.S. food supply chain.

The internationally recognized World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE’s) ‘Five Freedoms’ guide our company’s approach and ambition to protect and uphold these freedoms in our supply chain, which we work to promote in the U.S and globally.

All Nestlé suppliers must follow our Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements (pdf, 2Mb), which lays out our sourcing requirements for meat, poultry and egg products and dairy.

What are you doing on Broiler Chicken Welfare?

Requirements on the care and welfare of farm animals in our supply chain have been part of Nestlé’s responsible sourcing policies for many years. We know farm animal welfare matters to our consumers, and it matters to us.

For broiler chickens in the U.S., we will continue to identify opportunities to pursue higher standards of farm animal welfare while working closely with vendors who supply broiler meat ingredients for our U.S. food products.  Through these efforts we will strive to build on our progress made since 2017, which includes:

• Onboarding broiler vendors aligned with our expectations to continuously improve farm animal welfare
• Collaborating with the industry on solutions for improved animal welfare, while engaging with organizations that also care about the treatment of farm animals to understand their priorities and share our efforts ​
• Funding research projects and pilots on practices, technologies and new breeds that show potential to meet the higher standards we are striving for with our vendors ​

As always, we ensure the broiler meat ingredients we purchase for our U.S. food products have been produced in accordance with the requirements in our Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements. As part of that, we expect our suppliers of animal-derived ingredients, including for broiler chickens, to respect the internationally recognized “Five Freedoms” related to animal welfare at the farm level.

What is your position on cage-free eggs?

All shell egg and egg product ingredients Nestlé sources to make our U.S. food products are 100% cage free.