April 18, 2008

McDonald's and Unilever switch to free-range eggs
 

McDonald's and Unilever have confirmed that they would only use free-range eggs from now on.

McDonald's, the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, uses 117 million free-range eggs in the EU each year. Over 90 percent of their egg products in the EU are free-range and McDonald's have now pledged to phase out the remaining battery eggs in its restaurants in the EU by the end of 2010.

Anglo-Dutch Unilever is the second largest food manufacturer in Europe. Unilever uses about 650 million eggs per year in Europe to produce mayonnaise, dressings, ice cream and shampoo, and the transition from battery eggs to free-range eggs will be done in phases.

Unilever will begin the transition in the UK in June this year, and its products will phase out battery eggs in West Europe by 2010 and all countries before 2012.