Some good news from Carrefour (and other pending matters)

After several years of work, meetings, negotiations, and actions to ensure that Carrefour Spain included commitments in its sustainability policies to improve animal welfare in its supply chain, we can finally see some progress today.

Carrefour Spain has fully committed to offering only eggs from cage-free hens on its shelves. In 2021, the company announced that all eggs under its brand in Europe, and specifically in Spain, would come from cage-free hens, with a deadline set for 2025. And we can say it: they have delivered!

Additionally, it’s important to highlight that Carrefour has also made strides in other areas of animal welfare.

It is the first supermarket in the country to commit to implementing electric stunning for trout by 2026 and for sea bass and bream by 2027. This aims to minimize stress and suffering for fish during slaughter, representing a step forward towards a more ethical treatment of all animals.

This commitment, born from a collaborative effort initiated in September 2022, reflects the importance of translating good practices in animal welfare to the aquaculture industry. After several meetings and discussions with key suppliers such as Avramar and Piszolla, Carrefour has agreed to make advancements in terms of animal welfare. However, it is also crucial to continue pushing further and adding new policies and possibilities in this regard.

But this is not the end (nor should it be):

While we celebrate these advancements, we also urge Carrefour and other supermarkets to do more.

In supermarkets, we can find eggs in various formats. Fresh eggs are those we commonly know as “eggs” that come in boxes, dozens, or half-dozens. But we cannot forget about the less obvious one: eggs as an ingredient. Therefore, Carrefour's achievement of 100% compliance in fresh eggs and 35% in eggs as an ingredient implies that, although they have made some progress, there is still much to do to ensure that all foods using eggs as an ingredient are made with eggs from hens that live in better conditions.

The same is happening with chickens. Although Carrefour committed itself to the European Chicken Commitment in July 2022, to date it has only reported 10% progress. And the deadline for 100% compliance is 2026. Under the European Chicken Commitment, companies must only seek chicken suppliers that meet a number of welfare requirements, such as the use of slow-growing breeds or lower densities.

It is essential that improvements in animal welfare go hand in hand with clear commitments across all product offering sectors. There is still a long way to go to ensure that all products meet these standards.

At the Animal Welfare Observatory, we will continue our work to ensure that major food chains, including Carrefour, maintain and continue improving their policies and commitments to animal welfare, without exceptions.