Cage Free Award - laying hens: Criteria

To apply for this award, you will need to be a well-known or notable food company that can satisfy the criteria below.

Companies can receive the award in one of two categories:

Current Policy: awarded to companies that already meet the award criteria.
In Transition: awarded to companies that have made a commitment and are working towards meeting the criteria within five years.

Applying in Europe and North America

Companies applying for a Cage Free Award - Laying Hens in Europe or North America must meet the following criteria:

An overarching regional commitment to adopt a cage-free sourcing policy* within five years, which applies to all shell eggs, egg products and egg ingredients
No use of combination and limited access systems**
A publicly available policy and annual progress report
EU-based companies: the public cage-free commitment should include a statement of support for an EU-wide cage ban for laying hens.

Note: Companies should meet their cage-free commitment through physical sourcing only (no cage-free credits).

*An overarching regional commitment applies at 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 five 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.

Applying outside Europe and North America

Companies applying for a Cage Free Award - Laying Hens in other regions of the world (i.e. outside Europe and North America) must meet the following criteria:

A commitment to adopt a cage-free sourcing policy by within five years, which applies to all shell eggs and/or egg products and ingredients*
No use of combination and limited access systems**
A publicly available policy and annual progress report

Note: Cage-free credits may be accepted only as a temporary measure and for a minimal amount of the total sourcing, in markets where physical sourcing is impossible. Companies must have a clear roadmap to switch to physical sourcing within a maximum of 10 years from the award date.

*Companies outside Europe and North America have the possibility to apply in one or both of the following categories:

Whole and shell eggs
Egg products and egg ingredients.

**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 five years.

Note: Applications outside Europe and North America can be accepted at company or significant brand level and at a regional or national level.

Retailers outside Europe and North America can apply for an award if they have a cage-free commitment covering their own-label shell eggs only.

AWARD CATEGORIES

We award three types of cage-free eggs:

Barn*
Free-range
Organic

*Please note that we will not award barn systems that feature combination cages (‘combi-cages’) or limited access systems where hens could be permanently enclosed and / or it restricts their movement within the tiers via internal partitions.

why apply?

Winning an award enables you to:

Demonstrate leadership on farm animal welfare and responsible sourcing.
Show how your policies and commitments align with your company's values and sustainability goals.
Strengthen supply chain transparency and traceability, helping to manage business and reputational risk.
Build trust and confidence among customers, investors and other stakeholders.
Gain recognition for your achievements from a globally respected farm animal welfare organisation.
Respond to growing consumer demand for food produced to higher welfare standards.

Support on your journey

We can help you identify welfare improvements through our expert technical advice and support, through our case studies which share best practice and we have a bank of resources to help you make the case for choosing higher welfare systems.

How to apply

Companies can apply via their engagement with the Food Business team and on completion of an application form signed at Director level.

Where an application is made on a commitment basis, companies are required to provide annual progress reports against their commitment. Compassion will maintain regular contact with award winners throughout the commitment period to monitor progress, offer ongoing support, and help ensure commitments are met within the agreed timeframe.

Ready to apply? Contact us today to start the conversation.

Find out more about laying hen welfare

Cage Free Award - Laying Hens: Criteria