“By 2024, we will aim to move our entire US chicken meat supply to a higher standard of animal welfare,” said Niki King, director of responsible sourcing for Campbell in a statement.
The company says it will work with suppliers to improve the treatment of broiler chickens in the following ways:
• Transitioning to strains of birds approved by Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) or the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) that are scientifically recognized as having higher welfare outcomes;
• Providing more space for chickens by reducing stocking density to a maximum of 6 lbs. per sq. ft.;
• Offering improved environments including litter, lighting and enrichment that meet GAP’s new standards;
• Processing chickens in a manner that avoids pre-stun handling and instead uses multi-step controlled atmospheric stunning; and
• Using third-party auditing to ensure compliance.
“We’ll thoughtfully address the impact of this commitment on the farmers from which we source our ingredients,” King added. “We will aspire to achieve these standards by 2024, but changes such as these are complicated and require time, investment, and partnership to succeed, and must align with our commitment to ensuring access to good, affordable food for our consumers.”
