Europe’s fast-food majors failing on poultry welfare progress

Europe is worryingly behind on basic animal welfare commitments, especially the fast-food businesses reliant on the farming of hundreds of millions of broiler chickens yearly.

That’s according to charity World Animal Protection’s new Pecking Order 2024 report that measures the commitment and progress food service restaurants make on poultry welfare.

Companies measured in the report, among others, included McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Ikea and Burger King.  

While 71% of the businesses measured have policies on broiler welfare, only 41% have committed to the European Chicken Commitment standards, and just a quarter implement the standards.

“Overall, progress is still too slow,” said World Animal Protection Netherlands director Dirk Jan Verdonk.

Urgency to increase poultry welfare

“This highlights the urgency for companies to increase their efforts: time is running out to meet the commitments they made.”

The report shows “a lack of adequate progress” across the board, including from EU policymakers which continued to drag their feet on essential welfare laws to progress the bloc’s overall humane status, the report said.

The new findings follow the release of the European Commission’s Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture report in the summer​, which laid out animal welfare reforms for 2026. It was, however, criticised for not implementing immediate change.

Seventy-five companies across seven countries were assessed as part of the report. The average score for commitment and targets was 39%, but performance and reporting stood at only 7%.

“Of the 75 companies evaluated, 31 have either committed to the ECC or have fully aligned their broiler welfare policies with ECC standards,” said the report.

“However, only 19 companies demonstrated any significant progress in performance reporting on broiler welfare.”

France and Germany were ranked as achieving the highest average country scores, at 36% and 33% respectively. Though others, such as the Czech Republic (19%), Spain (18%), Poland (17%), Italy (14%) and Romania (14%) lagged far behind.

How many companies have good poultry welfare?

A small (15%) number of companies were making early-stage progress on addressing broiler welfare or making progress, However, all other companies measured (85%) had performed poorly in managing and reporting broiler welfare in their supply chains, claimed the report.

Many of the issues contributing to poor scores were reporting, as well as not having roadmaps in place to meet ECC criteria.

However, the industry supplying broilers to fast-food was also reliant on more intensive production methods, including fast-growing chicken breeds, said Wageningen Livestock Research senior scientific researcher, Ingrid de Jong.

“These systems are associated with all kinds of animal welfare issues – health problems, locomotion problems, managing the climate and litter in the barns, high stocking density, and no to little opportunity to perform natural behaviour, either due to the high stocking density or physical ailments or limitations,” explained de Jong.

The deadline for ECC compliance, however, was less than two years away and businesses would have to outline their approaches to increasing welfare in their supply chains.

Though implementing such changes could provide a boost to business, claimed the report, which said: “Notably, retailers transitioning to 100% ECC-compliant chicken have experienced significant market growth, indicating that adhering to higher welfare standards can yield economic benefits.”