Major Food Service Provider Takes Huge Stand Against Animal Cruelty

The Bon Appétit Management Company announced a commitment to stop serving pork products from pigs raised in controversial gestation crates and any eggs from egg-laying hens raised in battery cages in all of its 400 locations in 31 states.

Bon Appétit—an onsite restaurant company that provides food for cafés, catering services, college campuses, corporate facilities and specialty venues—made the announcement on February 21st in a partnership with the Humane Society of the United States to stop working with suppliers who employ two of the most controversial farming methods in practice today.

In a statement, Bon Appétit said the company serves 3 million pounds of pork and 1.75 million pounds of liquid eggs (the shells are removed prior to distribution) per year, and the task of finding alternatives to the crate and caged options is proving to be a challenge for the food supplier, but one they’re welcoming. From the Bon Appétit site blog: “This is the next step on the path we’ve been on since 2003, when we said ‘no’ to antibiotics in feed or water for chicken (and later, turkey). Two years after that, we vowed that our hamburgers had to come from cows not given antibiotics routinely or growth hormones ever and that all of our shell eggs had to be Certified Humane.”

Citing the action as a way to help raise the minimum standards in food production, Helene York, director of strategic sourcing and research for Bon Appétit said, “the best chance for change is to stop waiting for everyone else to make the first move.”

The company also vows that by 2015 it will begin to source no less than 25 percent of all meat, poultry and eggs from farms providing its animals with the highest welfare standards as determined by such reputable third party verifiers as Animal Welfare Approved, Global Animal Partnership and Humane Farm Animal Care.

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