AT-RISK BRANDS
Which brands risk losing customer trust in 2024?
The 2024 Eggsposé
With less than a year left to fulfill their cage-free egg commitments, which major restaurants are failing to deliver?
Empty promises won’t empty cages
For many major restaurant brands like Subway and BJ's Restaurants, 2024 marks the final year before their commitments to source exclusively cage-free eggs come due.
Most of them had 10 years to fulfill these public pledges. (All company deadlines were self-imposed.) And in the next nine months, these popular restaurants will prove whether or not they honored the promises they made to their customers.
Because they’re running out of time. And with cage-free eggs gradually becoming the norm for producers and consumers—and in state and international laws—they’re running out of excuses.
READ THE LATEST REPORT
The Humane League’s 2024 Eggsposé is here.
As the original partner in securing many of these commitments, our corporate cage-free policy experts reached out to their restaurant contacts for an urgent progress report.
Dozens of companies shared their transition status, or were cage-free compliant.
Others had nothing to say.
Do they also have nothing to show?
CAGE-FREE IN 2024
EGG PRODUCERS ARE REPORTING …
… that cage-free is the new conventional, and it’s a race to the top. In 2015, only 13% of egg-laying hens in the US lived outside of cages. In 2024, that figure tripled to 40.2%.
POLLS ARE REPORTING …
… that when given the opportunity, voters want cage-free to be the norm. Currently, 11 states have laws banning battery cages.
CONSUMER TRENDS ARE REPORTING …
… that cage-free is here to stay. That ESG claims do affect spending. That most consumers care about transparency in animal protein.
INDUSTRY TRADES ARE REPORTING …
… that the companies behind these pledges should do the “responsible thing” and share cage-free transition updates.
MAJOR FOOD COMPANIES ARE REPORTING …
… that going 100% cage-free ahead of their deadlines is possible, and the new plan is going cage-free globally.
The Humane League's Eggsposé consultants conducted outreach and research for years to keep these brands accountable. Some companies cited long timelines in defense of their slow progress and lack of transparency, as the deadline was for 2025.
But the time for fulfillment is now. 2024 is their last chance to make good on their promises to their guests—promises these companies promoted, before becoming publicity-shy.
If these restaurants only said they’d go cage-free to make headlines, they won’t meet their deadlines.
COMING SOON:
THE 2025 EGGSPOSÉ