Lever Foundation Praises Dairy Queen International for New Global Cage-Free Egg Ingredients Policy

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. , Feb. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Soft serve ice cream and QSR giant Dairy Queen won praise today for its new pledge to source only cage-free eggs and egg ingredients for all stores globally by 2025. The company has over 6,800 locations across 20 countries, including over 1,100 stores in China, 500 in Thailand, 100 in Mexico, and nearly 100 in the Philippines, with additional locations spanning Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

Dairy Queen offers a variety of frozen foods from ice cream to cakes and other sweet treats, as well as burgers, sandwiches, salads and snacks in select locations. In 2016 the company committed to sourcing only cage-free eggs and egg ingredients in the U.S. and Canada. The new policy, released Friday, expands the company's commitment to include all international locations.

"Globally, we are committed to requiring suppliers of shell and liquid eggs and proprietary ingredients to use cage-free eggs by 2025," the company noted in its updated animal welfare policy. "In the U.S., 67 percent of shell eggs, liquid eggs, and proprietary DQ ingredients that contain eggs have either converted to cage-free or were reformulated to remove egg as an ingredient. In Canada, 39 percent of shell eggs, liquid eggs, and proprietary DQ ingredients that contain eggs have either converted to cage-free or were reformulated to remove egg as an ingredient…Worldwide, we are on track to meet our 2025 cage-free egg commitment."

"We congratulate Dairy Queen on its expanded global cage-free egg policy, which will spare egg-laying hens around the world from intensive cage confinement," said Kirsty Tuxford, Corporate Engagement Manager at international NGO Lever Foundation, which worked with Dairy Queen on its new commitment. "With this latest pledge, two-thirds of the world's 25 largest international QSR chains have now committed to remove caged eggs from their global supply chains, including at all franchised and licensed locations."

The growing list of QSR brands that have set timelines to source only cage-free eggs globally includes Burger King, Dunkin, KFC, Taco Bell, Baskin Robbins, Tim Hortons, Costa Coffee, Krispy Kreme, Sonic, Popeyes, Arby's, Jimmy Johns, Pizza Hut and Papa John's.

CONTACT
Ilaria Bertini, [email protected]

SOURCE Lever Foundation