Cage-Free Award Eligibility and Criteria

Cage-Free Award general criteria

You will need to be a large food company who can satisfy the following general criteria:

1. The Cage-Free Award is a multi-species award covering the following species: Laying Hens, Pigs, Rabbits, Quails, and Ducks. Applicants need to have a minimum of two of the relevant species in their supply chain. For companies with just one species in their supply chain, you may be eligible for one of our single species Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards.
2. Applicants must meet the criteria across all relevant species in their supply chain.
3. Applicants must meet the criteria across all product categories.
4. The award will be given per region (e.g. Europe or North America). All company operations within the region must meet the award criteria.
5. The award is for large food companies, and for retailers, the award applies to all own-brand products, including tertiary brands.
6. Applicants must meet the criteria on a current policy or on a commitment basis to be achieved within 5 years.
7. Cage-free requirements must be written into sourcing policy
8. For EU-based companies: the cross-species cage-free commitment must be public and include a statement of support for an EU-wide cage ban for all farmed species covered by the Cage-free Award (i.e. laying hens, pigs, rabbits, ducks, quails).

Welfare Criteria - Laying Hens

1. No products to be sourced from hens in cages, including whole eggs, egg products and ingredients, or meat from end-of-lay hens
2. Current policy or commitment to meet the following criteria within 5 years:
   • An overarching regional commitment to adopt a cage-free sourcing policy*, which applies to all shell eggs, egg products and egg ingredients
   • No use of combination and limited access systems**

* An overarching regional commitment applies at a group level and for all of the company's operations in a given region (i.e. Europe, North America)

** Combination (or ‘combi’) and limited access systems refer to compact multi-tier systems where hens can be permanently enclosed in a tier via the closure of external doors and movement within tiers is restricted via internal partitions. Access to the floor is restricted in limited access systems, from the first tier only. These systems, if present in your current supply chain, must be modified or excluded within a maximum of 5 years.

Retailers: The cage-free shell egg policy must apply to all eggs sold in store (own label and branded). The egg product/ingredient policy need only apply to own label products.

Welfare Criteria - Pigs

• No products to be sourced from systems where sows are confined (sow stalls/gestation crates, farrowing crates), including fresh and frozen pork; bacon, gammon and sausage; cured /cooked hams and sliced meats; processed pig meat and ingredient.
• Current policy or commitment to meet the following criteria within 5 years:
  • No confinement (sow stalls/gestation crates) during the dry period, inclusive of the observation period*
  • No confinement during farrowing and lactation (farrowing crates)
    • Short duration confinement for management purposes limited to 2 hours at any time
    • Minimum farrowing pen size: 6.9m2 with at least 5.9m2 available to the sow and 1m2 for the creep area
    • In case of temporary crates, monitoring system in place to ensure the crate is operated in open position
    • An active monitoring/improvement programme for pre-wean mortality must be in place

Retailers: This policy must apply to all own label products and may exclude branded products.

*Observation period: period (typically 4 weeks) following service and until pregnancy diagnosis

Welfare Criteria - Rabbits

1. No products to be sourced from rabbits in cages, including fresh and frozen rabbit meat; further processed rabbit meat and ingredient.
2. Current policy or commitment to meet the following criteria within 5 years:
   • No meat products to be sourced from rabbits kept in caged systems.
   • Farmed rabbits and does should be group housed (individual doe housing during kindling and nursing is permitted).

Retailers: This policy must apply to all own label products and may exclude branded products.

Welfare Criteria - Quail

1. No products to be sourced from laying quails kept in cages, including eggs, egg products and ingredients, or meat from end-of-lay quails
2. Current policy or commitment to meet the following criteria within 5 years:
   • No whole eggs, egg product or meat to be sourced from quail in caged systems

Retailers: The cage-free shell egg policy must apply to all eggs sold in store (own label and branded). The egg product/ingredient policy need only apply to own label products.

Welfare Criteria - Ducks

1. No products to be sourced from ducks kept in cages for foie gras production and other duck meat products, including fresh and frozen duck; further processed duck meat and ingredient.
2. Current policy should meet the following criteria:
   • No meat products to be sourced from ducks in caged systems

Retailers: This policy must apply to all own label products and may exclude branded products.

How to apply

If you are interested in applying for a Cage-Free Award, please contact one of the Food Business team.

Note: The final decision on company eligibility for the Cage-Free Award is at the discretion of the Food Business team at Compassion in World Farming.