As part of its ongoing dedication to corporate responsibility, Kellogg Company announced today its plans to build on its commitment to animal welfare by sourcing only cage-free eggs for its foods and eliminating gestation stalls from its pork supply chain by the end of 2025.

In addition, Kellogg will consider the "Five Freedoms" of animal welfare, an internationally recognized set of humane treatment principles, as part of its process to continuously improve its supply chain in the future.

"Even though we are a grains-based company and use very few animal products in our foods, we understand that we have a role to play in influencing responsible behavior throughout our supply chain," said Paul Norman, President, Kellogg North America. "Today's announcement allows us to lead positive change in a way we know gives consumers more of what they want from brands and companies -- a strong focus on social responsibility."

Kellogg uses eggs in some of its foods, including Eggo frozen breakfast foods and MorningStar Farms frozen veggie foods brands. The company also purchases a very small amount of pork for some of its frozen breakfast sandwiches. Kellogg has already reduced its use of eggs from caged hens in MorningStar Farms products by 20 million eggs since 2007, and by the end of 2016, the company has committed to switch one million more cage-free eggs within its MorningStar Farms brand. Today's announcement, which applies to its U.S. operations, takes those promises one step further with the move to 100 percent cage-free eggs.

"We are proud of the progress we've made to date as we've sourced an increasing number of cage-free eggs," said Diane Holdorf, Chief Sustainability Officer at Kellogg Company. "While we hope these transitions come sooner than 2025, we understand that the development of alternative housing methods takes time and are committed to working with our suppliers to establish the appropriate path forward. "

Today's announcement builds on Kellogg's longstanding commitment to corporate responsibility. The company is committed to responsibly sourcing its priority 10 ingredients, like rice, wheat and corn, by 2020. It also announced plans last month to enhance its efforts to support the livelihoods of more than 500,000 farmers worldwide over the next 15 years through climate smart agriculture practices, training and partnership with suppliers, NGOs and other stakeholders. More details on Kellogg's corporate responsibility efforts and the expanded animal welfare commitment can be found at http://www.kelloggcompany.com/en_US/corporate-responsibility.html

Source: Kellogg Co.