Iceland has become the first major UK supermarket to abandon its 2025 cage-free egg commitment.
The retailer is now the only one of the mults not to have a public commitment to be cage-free by the end of the year.
In 2016, Iceland committed to source whole eggs exclusively from hens raised outside cages by the end of 2025. At the time it said, “it is clear that our customers would prefer to buy eggs from non-caged hens”.
However, the retailer has since u-turned on this commitment, with a statement supporting its pledge on its website understood to have been removed during the past few weeks.
A spokesperson for the supermarket this week told The Grocer it had made the move to protect customers “during the ongoing cost of living crisis”.
“While we won’t meet our 2025 target to go cage-free, we believe in giving people choice, not removing affordable essentials from their baskets,” they said.
“That’s why we’re continuing to offer free-range products and introducing barn eggs as part of our ongoing work to offer a range of higher-welfare options at prices people can afford.”
The scrapping of this commitment has been criticised by animal charity The Humane League, which has said it could impact hundreds of thousands of hens.
“Iceland has axed their commitment to stop selling whole eggs from cruelly caged birds from their website,” said Claire Williams, campaigns manager at THL UK. “This is a phenomenally short-sighted move, and a deep betrayal of their customers and countless suffering animals.
“An overwhelming majority of the public thinks caging hens is wrong, but Iceland seemingly doesn’t care,” she added. “Shoppers who want to avoid caged cruelty should shop somewhere else.”
Actor Joanna Lumley has also fronted a new petition, with the charity demanding Iceland keep its cage-free promise.
“I believe that the British public are committed to seeing farmed animals treated with kindness and decency,” said Lumley. “However, there is no better symbol of cruelty to farmed animals than a hen in a cage.
“It pains me deeply to think of the thousands of hens suffering day in, day out because of this,” she added. “It is Iceland’s moral duty to help these animals.”
While barren battery cages were outlawed in the UK in 2012, an estimated eight million hens are still kept in enriched cages, in which they cannot properly perform key instinctual behaviours such as dust-bathing, perching, roosting and wing-flapping.
Aldi, M&S, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have already transitioned to fully cage-free eggs across their whole egg offers, with all other supermarkets, besides Iceland, committing to reaching this target by the end of the year.
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