The Chicken Track report published last week by Compassion in World Farming assesses how food businesses committed to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) are doing. In a word: badly. And that means the chickens in their supply chains aren’t doing very well either. In fact, this is perhaps the worst-performing voluntary corporate commitment yet. And the bar was not very high.
The BCC is a “comprehensive set of science-based criteria that will, when used as a complete package, significantly improve the lives of millions of chickens reared for food”, according to CIWF. There are five main criteria, all of which need to be met for all the chickens in food company supply chains by 2026:
- Moving to slower growing breeds for improved health and welfare
- More space to live
- Natural light, perches and pecking substrates so chickens can express natural behaviours
- A more humane slaughter
- Compliance with a meaningful third-party animal welfare certification and annual reporting
Since 2017, more than 380 companies in Europe have joined, including many well-known UK brands like M&S, Waitrose, Nestlé, Burger King and KFC; and some less well-known, but nonetheless very large ones, like Sodexo, Elior and Compass, the catering firms who supply schools, hospitals and offices. They enjoyed some nice publicity in putting pen to paper and have now had a number of years since joining to be in a position to comply by next year’s deadline. Very, very few will manage it though.
Some are getting there, many are not, and some are yet to even report on progress. Tracey Jones, global director of food business for CIWF attempts to put a positive spin on things, saying this year’s report “shows encouraging momentum, with more companies reporting progress than last year”. That’s true: 64 now show how (generally, badly) they are doing, but that’s still only 69 per cent of the 93 assessed (seen as “the most influential” signatories). Reporting is meant to be the easy bit.
There are some companies that seem to be taking this seriously. CIWF highlights Greggs: 65 per cent of its chickens are now at the lower stocking densities required under BCC (30kg/m2, which is the same as RSPCA Assured; compared to Red Tractor which is 38kg/m2). Premier Foods has got to 65 per cent across all criteria taken together.
Most supermarkets are also moving, or have already moved to, the lower stocking densities (Marks and Spencer is 100 per cent compliant and Waitrose should be by Christmas-time). This isn’t easy, given the millions of birds these shops buy and sell; indeed, it’s had farmers and suppliers in a flap for a number of years.
“[…] predicting the future in the UK broiler industry is about as easy as predicting the British weather,” wrote Hannah Cargill, contract production manager at Avara Foods, which produces 280 million birds a year in Europe, recently for Poultry Business magazine. However, there is “plenty we do know”, she added: “By now, most of us are well aware that 2025 will usher in a new standard for the majority industry: the 30kg/m² stocking density program.”
Race for space
More space means more sheds, for example. Supplies have become strained as supermarkets look to meet their commitments. Tesco and Aldi have come fairly late to the party which, given their size, doesn’t help with a smooth transition to more sustainable chicken rearing (as was largely the case with cage-free eggs). The government is also looking at planning regulations: whether this means more big, big poultry units (and more problems with the pollution from them) is moot.
Some poultry suppliers have reportedly never had it so good with premiums being paid for birds that have that extra bit of space. Others in the supply chain are facing down empty processing plants. There is more upheaval to come, but that should not be used an excuse for companies struggling to meet the BCC.
Foodservice companies have been known to do just that however, citing the power of the supermarkets who have been hoovering up all the higher welfare hens. Fast food chains, restaurants and caterers seem to have a particular problem with poultry welfare (which I have long reported on for Footprint). Last week, before CIWF’s results, I came across Compass Group UK&I’s update – published in advance of Chicken Track going live but not in time for it to be included in the final report – which showed that none of the caterer’s chicken is yet from the slower-growing breeds that CIWF and others are desperate to see become mainstream.
Indeed, skim through the Chicken Track report and it’s clear that companies are making decent progress in terms of criteria around enrichment and natural light. Nando’s has got to 100% on both those benchmarks, for example. However, breed change and lowering stocking density are a different story: none of Nando’s chicken is yet from slower growing breeds reared at lower stocking densities. “The foodservice sector cannot depend on retailers to spearhead progress,” says CIWF’s Jones. “It must take ownership of its actions,” she adds.
KFC has found itself in the firing line this year after a U-turn on its commitment to better chicken, specifically the slower growing breeds target. The fast food chain blamed the rest of the market as it managed to shift 0.7 per cent of its chicken to slower growing breeds and is at 5.8 per cent on stocking density. Remember, by next year these should be 100 per cent.
Paltry effort
The Colonel is not the only one this battle for better chicken, but are companies really fighting for change? This chicken track report suggest not.
At Burger King UK none of the chicken is yet from slower-growing breeds; Subway appears to be on zero too, as are Domino’s, Papa Johns, TGI Fridays, The Big Table and Yo!. Just 1 per cent of Greggs’ chicken is from slower-growing breeds, though it has got to 65 per cent on the BCC stocking density standard. On breeds, Aramark managed 1 per cent in 2024, with a target for 5 per cent this year and 25 per cent next.
Elior isn’t yet reporting figures. Neither are Azzurri, Chipotle, Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, Prezzo or Sodexo. Even Ikea, often held up as a sustainable sourcing leader, is struggling: reporting its overall transition (meeting all criteria) as 3 per cent. Accor, the hotel giant that owns the likes of Novotel and Ibis, has got to 16 per cent chicken from slower growing breeds – but for the leader to be so far off target is a damning indictment of interest and investment in this initiative, and leaves us beholden to a hyper-intense, industrial supply chain for some time to come.
“Trusting industry to do the right things and clean up is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house,” says Duncan Williamson, a food systems expert and former global head of policy and research at CIWF. Dan Crossley, executive director at the Food Ethics Council, also wonders whether this is another case where weak voluntary agreements need to be replaced with regulations. “I’m a big fan of bold collective missions – and of aiming high even if you don’t know how to get there,” he explains, but maybe companies should only be able to shout about such commitments when “they’ve done stuff and have achieved the target”, he adds.
Indeed, let’s not forget that many, if not all, of these companies enjoyed positive PR when they signed up to BCC (most, a number of years ago). Having approached most of the UK foodservice companies assessed by CIWF, it seems that most are now keen to keep quiet and distance themselves from the BCC.
Only one provided a response. Compass, the UK’s largest catering company, said it is focusing on “scalable change” and is therefore “in conversations with relevant hatcheries and main suppliers to gauge how we can facilitate cumulative amounts of the BCC breeds into our existing supply chain”. This is a commitment the company made in 2019 – 6 years ago – so to be starting such conversations now when scaling up to slower growing breeds requires at least 18 months for approved breeds (or three years for new ones) speaks volumes.
The chickens and the roadmap
Compass is now set to produce a roadmap. Others will undoubtedly do so too. CIWF is supporting them in such endeavours and Jones’s glass remains half full. “The narrative that ‘nothing’s happening’ overlooks the structural complexity of shifting an entire supply chain, from genetics to procurement, especially in a volatile economic environment,” she says.
Squeezing the birds into tight spaces, and growing them fat, fast, has kept chicken cheap – the latest chicken track report shows companies are more committed to bargain prices than better chicken.
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