Nestlé will be among six other companies aiming to work towards improving animals standards across the global food supply chain to meet consumer demand.
The collective group of major companies and animal welfare experts will address current systemic barriers to change, share best practices as well as accelerate the development of standards and progress on key welfare issues.
The Global Coalition for Animal Welfare group aims to publish an action agenda in the first half of 2019 focusing on cage free policies and improved broiler chicken welfare.
The co-founding group builds on Nestlé’s pledge for broiler welfare in the US last year, as well as sourcing cage-free eggs on a global basis by 2025.
Nestlé uses around 10,000 tonnes of poultry meat in Europe per year and has recently announced plans to globally raise welfare standards by having all of its supplier under one standard.
The business said it would cut suppliers that did not meet the standards it set out, but support them as much as possible.
Nestlé’s acceleration of animal welfare standards prompted a response by UK charity the RSPCA, which called on supermarkets to emulate Nestlé’s commitment.
The RSPCA said despite rapidly growing demand for chicken, there had been little progress made on welfare.