Matthew Chalmers
One year ago today Burger King made a historic move by signing up to the Better Chicken Commitment.
In 2021 Burger King, a fast-food restaurant with a poor reputation for animal welfare, signed onto the Better Chicken Commitment. We’re looking back on this momentous milestone.
On this day in 2021, Burger King pledged to vastly improve the lives of chickens in its supply chain by committing to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC).
The BCC is an animal welfare policy, designed by experts, which phases out fast-growing chickens, provides more space for birds and ensures the use of less painful slaughter methods.
The change came after two long years of talks with our corporate relations team, as well as staff from the RSPCA, World Animal Protection, Compassion in World Farming and members of the Open Wing Alliance.
Burger King is a huge brand name, an industry leader with some 530 stores across the country. Getting them to sign onto the Better Chicken Commitment was a huge victory.
By the end of 2026, Burger King will have completely stopped using fast-growing breeds of chicken. These animals suffer from a disproportionate amount of health problems like lameness, heart attacks and foot burns.
Burger King has recently made other progressive moves like turning their flagship London restaurant fully vegan between March and April 2022.
This progress is not universal. In France, Burger King is still* exploiting fast-growing chickens, with animal charity L214 campaigning for them to adopt the European Chicken Commitment.
A number of Burger King’s UK competitors are still refusing to stop the cruellest methods of farming chickens by signing onto the BCC.
These companies, including McDonald’s, Domino’s, Costa, and Starbucks, are stubbornly clinging to the most abusive and intense methods of chicken farming, valuing profit over animal wellbeing.
However, in the UK Burger King has made encouraging steps to redress some of the cruelty of animal farming while also normalising plant-based food.
Burger King’s commitment to the BCC highlighted that reforming our cruel food system was possible. One year later, with over 100 more companies signed up to the BCC, including Subway, Popeyes and Premier Foods, change seems more realistic than ever.
*Edit: Burger King France finally signed up to the European Chicken Commitment in March 2023.
