Today (23 November) Compassion has launched its preliminary ChickenTrack Report which aims to measure company progress towards meeting the higher welfare requirements of the 2026 Better Chicken Commitment (BCC).
Introducing ChickenTrack
This first edition is an introduction to ChickenTrack, rounding up some of the progress made over the past year and provides some examples of best practice reporting from leading companies like KFC and M&S.
It also lays out a reporting framework for businesses to adopt and explains how Compassion will begin to track and report on company progress annually starting from 2022.
Driving compliance through best practice
Over the past four years, more than 270 food companies have acknowledged their responsibility in improving the breeding, living conditions and slaughter practices for the meat chickens in their supply by committing to the BCC, promising to introduce the higher welfare criteria by 2026.
This move in the market is the biggest shift in chicken welfare for over a decade and ChickenTrack aims to drive compliance and encourage transparency, by sharing best practice from the companies who are demonstratively leading the way.
Dr Tracey Jones, Global Director of Food Business, Compassion in World Farming said: “Companies signing up to the BCC are taking a major step towards raising baseline standards for broiler chickens, and we urge every food business to take that pledge.
“But a commitment alone is not enough; it is essential that companies move forward on their implementation plans and report year-on-year progress. ChickenTrack will help monitor that progress annually and will provide recommendations and advice, while recognising those companies that are leading the way.
“We are excited about the future of chicken welfare and will continue to work with industry to ensure that better standards for broilers are accomplished. System change at scale and pace like this inevitably comes with its challenges but with open minds and resourcefulness a true market shift to higher welfare chicken is achievable if we all work together now to make it a success.”
The next official ChickenTrack report will be published in Autumn 2022.
Find out more about ChickenTrack here.