Matthew Chalmers
A concerted effort by The Humane League and the Open Wing Alliance has led to popular restaurant Wagamama adopting a global cage-free policy.
Wagamama will no longer source eggs in any form - from whole eggs to ingredients - from caged systems by 2025.
Wagamama’s commitment to a 100% global cage-free policy marks another victory for chicken welfare and showcases the continued progress of cage-free systems across the globe.
This commitment follows on from the Open Wing Alliance’s Restaurant Report, which initially targeted Wagamama as one of the companies lagging behind the trend towards global cage-free initiatives.
This prompted a quick change in their policy.
Wagamama is an international restaurant chain serving East Asian food with over 150 restaurants in over 20 countries.
It has positioned itself as a pioneer in ethical and sustainable food, and its UK menu is now 50% plant-based.
Wagamama made a UK cage-free commitment back in 2017, and became fully cage-free by 2021, but this new policy covers restaurants abroad too. Wagamama also committed to the European Chicken Commitment in 2019, a welfare policy which bans the use of painful, fast-growing breeds of meat chickens amongst other improvements.
Cages, whether barren or enriched, are cruel homes for laying hens. They restrict a large number of natural behaviours like dust-bathing, roosting and even stretching their wings, frustrating the birds and causing them pain and restlessness.
Wagamama joins the likes of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Burger King, Krispy Kreme, Unilever, and Nestlé in ditching cages from their supply chain. The welfare of hens is improving thanks to commitments like this, and cages are slowly sliding into the dustbin of history.
Take action with us, and join thousands of activists around the globe in the fight against cages and animal abuse in the food system - together we can win.
