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Retailers’ animal-welfare priorities most often center on laying hens, broiler chickens and pigs, but a pledge is not proof that every product already meets it. To judge what a company is doing, look for the species and products covered, the geography, a measurable deadline, current progress figures and a description of how suppliers are checked.
What animal-welfare issues matter most to retailers?
Eggs, broiler chickens raised for meat and pigs are recurring priorities in retailer and restaurant-company policies. Some companies also address beef cattle, dairy cows, turkeys, non-food products or wider supply-chain issues. The range matters: a policy covering eggs does not necessarily cover all poultry, and a commitment from one region may not apply to a company’s entire global business.
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Retailers describe welfare through different standards and indicators. Walmart’s supplier expectations include species-specific standards and third-party audits or sampling, with broiler topics such as enrichment, litter, lighting and darkness, and selection for healthy birds. Its policies also discuss housing, health, nutrition and behavior for other species. Walmart’s published animal-welfare policies refer to the Five Freedoms and Five Domains in its egg and pork discussions.
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How can shoppers assess a retailer’s commitment?
A useful comparison separates a promise from its implementation. Check each policy for the following:
- Scope: Which species, products, store brands and business units are included? Does it apply to shell eggs, liquid eggs, meat products or a defined subset?
- Geography: Is the pledge for the U.S., North America, named markets or the global supply chain?
- Specificity and timing: Does it name a welfare standard or measurable outcome and give a deadline?
- Progress reporting: Does the company publish recent figures, explain what they measure and report them regularly?
- Verification: Does it describe independent audits, third-party sampling or another way of checking suppliers?
- Implementation constraints: Does the company explain how availability, affordability, regulation, animal-health disruptions or operating conditions may affect timing?
The ASPCA’s 2024 Supermarket Scorecard methodology offers one example of evaluating public commitments and reported progress. It assesses store-brand policies on broiler chickens, laying hens and pregnant pigs, and considers the robustness of commitments, public reporting and minimum welfare standards. Its broiler policy definition includes a defined own-brand scope, a deadline, recent annual reporting and third-party auditing; its egg criteria include all shell eggs, a deadline and recent reporting. The scorecard’s maximum is 300 points—100 for each policy area. That is a policy score, not a measure of industry-wide animal welfare outcomes.
How do retailer priorities differ by issue?
Cage-free eggs
Cage-free goals are prominent, but deadlines, product coverage and reported progress differ. McDonald’s says its U.S. business met its 100% cage-free egg goal in 2023, two years before its 2025 deadline. Its page describes the Canadian egg term as “free-run,” so the U.S. claim should not be generalized to Canada or to every market.
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Target says its earlier goal was a 100% cage-free egg supply chain by 2025, subject to available supply. It now describes a goal of an affordable, reliable 100% cage-free assortment by 2030. Target reports that more than 600 stores have a fully cage-free egg assortment, that over half its eggs by unit volume come from cage-free sources, and that all its liquid eggs come from cage-free systems. These are company-reported claims; the assortment, unit-volume and liquid-egg measures describe different scopes.
Target’s 2026 plan gives forward-looking scenario ranges for cage-free unit sales and targets for cage-free stock-keeping units (SKUs). They are milestones, not completed outcomes:
| Year | Cage-free unit sales | Cage-free SKUs |
|---|---|---|
| End of 2026 | 57–61% | 81% |
| 2027 | 62–70% | 87% |
| 2028 | 71–84% | 87% |
| 2029 | 85–90% | 94% |
| 2030 | 100% | 100% |
Target says WIC compliance and potential industry disruption, including avian influenza, could affect progress. RBI reports cage-free compliance by the end of 2025 at 40% globally, 39% in North America, 50% in the U.S. and 27% in Canada. It gives a global goal of 2030 or earlier, with goals of 2026 for the U.S. and 2028 for Canada. Those figures and deadlines are RBI’s company-reported progress and targets; they are not directly interchangeable with Target’s assortment milestones.
Broiler chickens
Broiler welfare involves more than stocking density. The policies and indicators cited by Walmart and RBI include bird health, housing, enrichment, litter, light and darkness, equipment, feed and water, handling, transport and euthanasia. Different companies may define and report these measures differently, so a broad claim such as “higher welfare” does not by itself show which conditions are covered.
McDonald’s reports that it achieved all eight of its broiler-welfare commitments in 2024 in 13 named key markets. That is a company-reported result for those commitments and markets, not a blanket claim about every McDonald’s supplier worldwide.
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Pigs and sow housing
Policies on pregnant sows often address gestation crates and group housing, but company targets and progress figures differ. McDonald’s says it phased out gestation stalls for confirmed pregnant sows in its U.S. pork supply by the end of 2024. RBI reports sow-housing compliance of 83% globally across its brands and regions and 84% in North America by the end of 2025; its goal is to eliminate gestation crates for pregnant sows in its global supply chain by 2035 or sooner.
Costco reported that, for fiscal year 2025, 100% group sow housing applied in 10 of 14 regions for Kirkland Signature fresh pork and cooler items. Its stated commitment is to increase the percentage globally. These measures have different geographic and product scopes, so they should not be read as equivalent endpoints.
Other species and supply-chain coverage
RBI says its animal-welfare work also covers beef cattle and dairy cows, in addition to broiler poultry, laying hens and pigs. Target says its supplier standards cover food categories including meat, poultry, eggs and dairy, and cites species-specific industry programs and guidelines. Walmart’s expectations likewise describe species-specific standards beyond broilers. A retailer’s overall animal-welfare policy may therefore include several distinct commitments with separate standards and timelines.
Why do targets and progress vary?
Retailers identify practical conditions that can affect implementation. Target links its egg goals to supply availability and affordability, and says WIC compliance and potential disruption such as avian influenza may affect progress. Walmart’s policies discuss supplier engagement, while RBI cites regional availability and commercial viability. These factors help explain why a company may set phased milestones or different regional deadlines; they do not establish that a target has been met.
Reporting also varies in what it counts. Cage-free unit sales, the share of products or SKUs, store assortments and regional compliance are different indicators. A company can report progress on one measure while still having a future deadline for another. When comparing figures, keep the product, geography, date and metric attached to each one.
How should progress reports be interpreted?
Public reporting is most useful when it is recent, recurring and tied to a defined commitment. Walmart says it will publicly report annually on cage-free eggs in its supply chain. The ASPCA’s scorecard methodology treats recent public progress information as part of accountability. Company reports can show what a business says it has implemented, while an independent scorecard evaluates policies against its own criteria; neither should be mistaken for a universal audit of every farm or product.
Read the exact wording of a claim and distinguish a deadline from a result. For example, a goal for a global supply chain is not the same as a regional progress percentage, and a full assortment target is not identical to a supply-chain-wide target. The relevant company pages provide the scope and measures behind their statements: Target, RBI, McDonald’s and Costco.
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