ChickenTrack

Better Chicken Commitment

The Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) – also referred to as the European Chicken Commitment – is a unified corporate ask developed in 2017 and supported by more than 30 NGOs in Europe committing its signatories to introduce higher welfare standards for chickens in their supply by 2026.

By signing up, companies commit to provide chickens with more space to live, with natural light and enrichment for occupation, and to ensure slower growing breeds with proven welfare outcomes are adopted, as well as humane slaughter without live inversion of the birds, and third-party auditing.

The criteria are known to improve bird welfare as evidenced by science and best-case examples and the commitments are set to benefit hundreds of millions of birds annually.

To date, over 340 companies have joined the Better Chicken Commitment - find out who is stepping up for chicken welfare here.

In the US, over 200 companies have agreed a similar ask to provide better welfare for broilers by 2024.

Compassion has worked closely with many of the leading companies signing up and to date, more than 1.1 billion broiler chickens are set to benefit from our corporate partners’ higher welfare policies, practices and commitments.

Read more about how to implement better systems for broiler chickens here.

2022 European ChickenTrack

ChickenTrack will officially begin to highlight company progress towards their broiler welfare commitments annually from 2022.

Companies will be selected based on their size, chicken footprint and market influence, and are asked to publicly disclose their reporting ahead of the        31st July 2022 deadline, in line with other updates required for BBFAW and EggTrack.

All information in ChickenTrack will be based on companies’ publicly disclosed information. For progress numbers to be included in the annual report and displayed on the tracker, all relevant information must be publicly available on a company’s website or in another relevant document including, but not limited to, an animal welfare policy, an ESG/CSR or progress report, or a press release.

Working with Compassion

Public facing commitments to change are important first steps for any company, however, mapping out a route to implement that change is vital and will require working with all stakeholders (both internal and external) involved in the supply chain.

Compassion works with companies from sign-up to having BCC-compliant product on shelf. If you need help or want to join our broiler forums and working groups, please get in touch.

We will be happy to take you through our guide on Building a Roadmap to Implement Higher Welfare Chicken which provides helpful support and guidance on how to:

• Build the business case with internal and external stakeholders
• Map out the supply chain
• Secure supply chain solutions
• Bring consumers on board through marketing and communications

Contact us for more information or read more about higher welfare broiler production here.

US ChickenTrack

On 29 March 2022, the third annual US ChickenTrack report was released highlighting the progress made by leading food businesses in North America in pursuit of the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC).

The 12 companies included in the report - Applegate, Blue Apron, ButcherBox, Cafe Spice, Farmer’s Fridge, Natural Grocers, Sprouts Farmers Market, Square Baby, Sweetgreen, The Cheesecake Factory, Thrive Market and Whole Foods Market - have demonstrated an understanding of the importance of transparency by publicly reporting their progress towards the BCC.

Read more about the U.S. version of ChickenTrack here.