Meat, poultry and eggs

Our meat, poultry and eggs supply chain

Our main sources of meat, poultry and eggs are North America (the United States) and Europe (France, Germany and Spain). We also source from other origins in lower quantities.

Our approach to sourcing meat, poultry and eggs sustainably

For us, sourcing sustainably means that the meat, poultry and eggs that we source are produced in a manner that respects people, animals and the planet.

Our Responsible Sourcing Standard (pdf, 2.4Mb) describes the requirements and ways of working that we apply, together with our upstream supply chain suppliers, focusing on critical social, environmental, economic and animal welfare challenges that can affect supply, livelihoods and sustainability in our sourcing activities. It sets out basic, non-negotiable standards, as well as important and urgent sustainability practices that we ask our suppliers and the farmers involved in our supply chain to adhere to at all times.

We verify the respect of these practices through farm assessments. As we verify compliance, we understand that some actions at farm level require time and often an industry transformation to be implemented. This is, for instance, the case for actions related to animal welfare, which may require infrastructural changes at farm level (e.g. switching from cages to cage-free production systems).

We also partner with our suppliers and other industry stakeholders in value-adding projects. These projects aim to improve animal welfare and the environmental sustainability of livestock production. As a company, we do not only want to identify the issues; we also want to be part of the solutions. In the future, we will increasingly engage in value-adding projects, believing that our contribution is best invested when we support transformation and create opportunities to change practices and become more sustainable.

Transparency

To hold our suppliers and ourselves accountable as well as driving industry-wide transparency, we have published the list of our Tier 1 direct suppliers (pdf, 0.5Mb) and the list of their slaughterhouses (for meat and poultry) and breaking locations for eggs (pdf, 0.5Mb), along with the country of origin.

Natural capital

The livestock sector is the world’s largest user of agricultural land, through grazing and the use of feed crops. It also plays a major role in climate change, management of land and water, and biodiversity. Nestlé, together with our suppliers and other industry stakeholders, supports projects to improve the environmental sustainability of livestock production.

Committing to no deforestation

In 2010, we made a ‘deforestation-free’ commitment for our supply chains, stating that all of our products, globally, will not be associated with deforestation by 2020. For the last 10 years, we have worked on the ground to trace where our raw materials, including meat, come from to ensure they are not linked to deforestation. As of March 2020, 99% of the meat we buy for our Food Business (which excludes meat, poultry and egg by-products) was verified deforestation-free (pdf, 200 Kb). We began tracing meat by-products in 2019 and expected to have this completed this by March 2020.

Working toward net-zero emissions

Our recent Climate Pledge to commit to net-zero emissions by 2050 will also push us to seek new innovations to offset and inset our emissions. This will be achieved through land restoration and conservation activities, sustainable grazing and feed origins, innovations to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and the adoption of a circular model that will reuse manure methane as a source of energy and lower the overall carbon footprint of animal production.

Reducing the water footprint of cattle in the US

Nebraska is the most irrigated state in the US and has the country’s second-largest number of cattle.  Much of the grain grown in the state becomes animal feed. Lifecycle assessments show that 50% of the environmental impact of raising cattle comes from growing feed. Crops in this part of the country are traditionally grown with the help of pivot irrigation. The water is drawn from groundwater and from the Ogallala Aquifer – one of the largest aquifers in the country – but the amount of water available is not infinite.

In 2018, Nestlé Purina, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Cargill, launched a three-year project to reduce the environmental impact of row crop pivot irrigation and provide a scalable irrigation solution for farmers across the US. The project uses technology in the form of flow meters, in-field weather stations and soil moisture probes to optimize irrigation management. Data is collected and sent to the farmer via their smartphone, allowing better control and management of irrigation. The project will save water and energy that would have been spent pumping unnecessary water to the surface, as well as saving farmers time, as they will not have to manually control the pivot’s irrigation system but can do so directly from their smartphone. Farmers who signed up for the pilot are receiving training and technology.

When the pilot is completed in 2021, 2.4 billion gallons of water are expected to have been saved from being pumped out of the aquifer as the farmers will be more precise, pumping only when the water is needed, rather than continuously.

Animal welfare

Our broiler pledge in Europe

We will ensure that chicken welfare standards for poultry used in all of our food products in Europe meet the criteria expectations set out in the European Broiler Ask/Better Chicken Commitment. By 2026, we will move to one standard, based on a phased introduction. Our announcement provides details of which brands we will focus on.

The European Broiler Ask/Better Chicken Commitment requires that 100% of the chicken used in Nestlé food products must (by 2026):

• Comply with all EU animal welfare laws and regulations, regardless of the country of production.
• Implement a maximum stocking density of 30 kg/m² or less. Thinning is discouraged and if practiced must be limited to one thin per flock.
• Adopt breeds that demonstrate higher welfare outcomes, including the following breeds: Hubbard JA757, 787, 957 or 987, Rambler Ranger, Ranger Classic and Ranger Gold, or others that meet the criteria of the RSPCA Broiler Breed Welfare Assessment Protocol.
• Meet improved environmental standards, including:
  • At least 50 lux of light, including natural light.
  • At least two meters of usable perch space, and two pecking substrates, per 1000 birds.
  • On air quality, at least the requirements of Annex 2.3 of the EU broiler directive, regardless of stocking density.
  • No cages or multitier systems.
• Adopt controlled atmospheric stunning using inert gas or multiphase systems, or effective electrical stunning without live inversion.
• Demonstrate compliance with the above standards via third-party auditing and annual public reporting on progress toward this commitment.

Our pledge applies to the whole of Nestlé’s Europe, Middle East and North Africa Zone – including all countries subject to EU legislation.

In 2019, we collaborated with our industry partners and organized a meeting with poultry suppliers to initiate the transition to this standard. This is a long journey, and we need the support of our suppliers in this transformation.

Beyond poultry

We are looking to identify and assess opportunities for welfare improvements for other animals and will be developing new initiatives and solutions for other aspects of our meat, poultry and egg supply chain. Animal welfare matters to us and to our consumers, who expect affordable, high-quality foods without compromising on the well-being of animals.

In 2019, Nestlé initiated projects with several suppliers to improve animal welfare, as outlined on this page.

Improving the environment for raising pigs in the US

The environment in which pigs are raised on farms is a critical contributory factor to their health and welfare, as well as productivity. Pigs are traditionally raised in pens. As our awareness and knowledge of animal welfare expands, animal behavior and what drives positive welfare outcomes is an increasing area of focus that influences how rearing environments are managed. Pigs are naturally curious animals. Of particular interest is how their environments can be enriched to stimulate their natural behavior while also having a positive impact on health and productivity.

In 2019, Nestlé and our supplier Tyson Foods joined forces with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research in the US. Together, we funded one of the first studies to test three different environmental enrichment devices that appear suitable for US pig production systems. The ongoing work by scientists with the US Department of Agriculture’s Livestock Behavior Research Unit at Purdue University is focused on assessing the pigs’ welfare, including measures of behavior, health and growth. With the resulting information, pig farmers will have the potential to apply environmental enrichment management strategies on their farms to improve animal welfare.

Avoiding tail docking of piglets in France

In 2019, Nestlé Herta financially supported two studies in France to end the tail docking of piglets. The studies were carried out in collaboration with two cooperative suppliers, Evel’up and Porc Armor Évolution. The aim was to test the impact of stopping the tail docking of piglets and determine if enriching their environment makes it possible to limit or avoid tail biting among animals. The study showed that environmental enrichment alone is not enough to manage tail biting, and there was even some cannibalism among the group during the test. It was clear that the management of piglets with entire tails requires more time and animal surveillance, so the studies will continue in 2020 using other production conditions (less density and greater distribution of straw).

Setting high standards globally

We recognize and share stakeholders’ concerns about the welfare of animals raised for food and the need to ensure sustainable animal production systems. Through our Responsible Sourcing Standard (pdf, 2.4Mb), we are helping to bring about positive change.

This mandatory standard requires our suppliers of animal-derived raw materials to meet all applicable laws and regulations on animal welfare and to communicate this to their suppliers and farmers. The Nestlé Commitment on Farm Animal Welfare (pdf, 1.5Mb) sets out further ways to improve the health, care and welfare of the farm animals in our supply chain.

We are committed to eliminating from our global supply chain specific practices that are not consistent with the internationally accepted Five Freedoms:

• Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition.
• Freedom from fear and distress.
• Freedom from physical and thermal discomfort.
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease.
• Freedom to express normal patterns of behavior.

Among the specific practices we have committed to eliminating are:

• Cattle: Dehorning, tail docking, disbudding and castration without anesthetic and analgesia, and veal crates.
• Pigs: Gestation crates, tail docking and surgical castration.
• Poultry and eggs: Cage systems, particularly barren cages, and rapid-growth practices with respect to the effects on animal health and welfare.
• Animal production systems in general: Our first focus is the responsible use of antibiotics, in line with the World Organisation for Animal Health’s (OIE) guidance, and the phasing out of growth promoters.

We are currently prioritizing practices to be addressed and assessing how best to tackle them. We will also support the development and implementation of science-based international standards and guidelines by the OIE. Our employees receive training on animal welfare based on a program developed in 2017 with the nonprofit organization Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).

Partnering to make change

In June 2018, Nestlé entered into a global partnership with CIWF. This will help define priorities to further improve farm animal welfare in the Nestlé supply chain, including sharing best practices and offering training. In 2018 and again in 2019, Nestlé and CIWF collaborated to provide this training on animal welfare for all Nestlé staff directly involved with meat, poultry and eggs.

In October 2018, Nestlé became one of the founding members of the Global Coalition for Animal Welfare (GCAW). Food service companies and food manufacturers are working together through the GCAW to advance animal welfare standards globally, including improving conditions for intensively reared livestock. In 2019, we continued as an active member of the GCAW, taking the lead on discussion around cage-free eggs and how to transition to this production system.

Contributing to global benchmarks

In recent years, we have contributed to the stakeholder consultation process on the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare, a global measure of animal welfare standards in food companies supported by the nonprofit organizations World Animal Protection and CIWF. In the 2019 report (published in February 2020), Nestlé was recognized in its efforts to progress animal welfare and was ranked for the first time in the Tier 2 category, with animal welfare ‘integral to business strategy.’ This is a real progress on previous years, when we were ranked as Tier 3 (‘established but work to be done’), and is mainly the result of greater transparency. Find out more about what Nestlé is doing to improve animal welfare on farms and through our dedicated Nestlé Farm Animal Welfare Questions and Answers (pdf, 0.3Mb).

Award-winning animal welfare

Our work to improve animal welfare was recognized externally in 2017, as our Herta brand in France received a Good Egg Award at the CIWF Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards.

We were also pleased to be awarded a Good Egg Award in 2018 by CIWF for our cage-free pledge in Europe.

In 2017 and 2018, we made three major poultry welfare pledges:

• We set a goal to purchase only cage-free eggs for all our food products globally by 2025 and by 2020 in Europe and the US.
• We committed to higher welfare standards for broiler chickens (chickens raised for meat, rather than egg, production) in the US by 2024, including slower growth rates, better leg health and improved environments in line with Global Animal Partnership standards.
• In June 2018, we committed to higher welfare standards for broiler chickens in Europe by 2026, in line with the requirements of the European Broiler Ask/Better Chicken Commitment.