Farm Animal Welfare
Position
Across Mars’ diverse portfolio of products, many of our recipes contain ingredients that come from animals – such as dairy in our chocolate, eggs in our cooking sauces, and meat and animal derivatives in our pet food.
Like our consumers, we care deeply about the welfare of animals within the food supply chain. We fully comply with all applicable local laws and regulations regarding farm animal welfare when sourcing ingredients derived from animals for use in our Mars products. Beyond this, we look to leading guidance from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to shape our Mars animal welfare commitments
Commitments
Mars is also working to move toward higher welfare standards in the sourcing of two ingredients:
Cage-Free Egg Sourcing
Mars has an ambition to achieve 100% cage-free egg use globally, and we are committed to working collaboratively with the wider industry and good-faith NGOs to drive the changes needed in the global egg supply chain. We currently source cage-free eggs in markets where sufficient supply exists and will adopt similar sourcing in other markets as soon as supply dynamics driven by larger users can enable this shift.
Following these principles, we currently use 100% cage-free eggs for all human food products (e.g. confectionery, rice, sauces) in Europe, the U.S. and Canada and are committed to achieving 100% cage-free eggs in Australia by 2025. More details on this issue and the latest progress is shared here.
Dairy Cow Welfare
As a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform’s Dairy Working Group, Mars Wrigley is helping to propel the development of a business-to-business model for dairy sustainability. This model seeks to harmonize standards and audits and to recognize national and company standards to improve efficiency and ensure focus on continuous improvement on farms. Ultimately, the model will allow us to source from suppliers who are advancing sustainable farming practices that protect animal welfare, the environment and human rights.