Jollibee Foods Corporation, Asia’s largest restaurant group and the owner or operator of eighteen brands and over 6,300 restaurant, café, and bakery locations globally, has issued a new pledge to shift to using only cage-free eggs across its global operations. In addition to its namesake restaurant chain Jollibee, which has over 1,600 locations globally, the company also owns the global café chain Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (over 1,000 global locations), bakery brand Red Ribbon (over 550 global locations), and restaurant and café chains Chowking (over 600 global locations), Yonghe King (over 420 locations), Mang Inasal (over 570 locations), Highlands Coffee (over 600 locations), Milksha (over 280 locations), and Greenwich (over 270 locations), in addition to managing a number of franchised brands in the Philippines and other Asian markets.
“Through responsible sourcing, which includes animal welfare efforts, we strive to provide our customers the highest quality and safest food offerings,” the company noted in its new responsible sourcing policy. “In this direction, we commit to transition to 100% cage-free eggs in the US by 2025. Globally, we aim for 100% cage-free eggs by 2035 and we will collaborate with suppliers, partners, and industry leaders to achieve this goal.”
“With its new policy goal of shifting to use only cage-free eggs globally, Jollibee Foods Corporation and its numerous restaurant and café brands join a growing list of Asia-based food companies that have set timelines to end the use of cruel caged eggs,” said Robyn del Rosario, Philippines Sustainability Program Manager at the non-profit Lever Foundation, which worked on the issue with the company and several of its iconic food brands over the past eighteen months.
Jollibee Foods Corporation’s pledge comes on the heels of similar commitments made by close to twenty other prominent Philippines-based food and beverage groups since the start of last year, including 75% of hospitality groups in the country as well as convenience and retail players. It also follows similar pledges in recent years from most other major QSR restaurant groups, including Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Dunkin Donuts, Costa Coffee and others.