Some of the biggest brands of international fast food continue to fail to respect the commitments made regarding the protection of the welfare of chickens used for their meat and involved within the chain of supplying. The association reveals it World Animal Protectionin the annual report ‘The Pecking Order‘, published in collaboration with Animal Equality and for which the commitments and actual performance of 19 different companies in the markets of ItaliaGermania, FranceSpain and Croatia. While some progress has been made, most companies have received in the 2022 report scores extremely low, also because 89% of the big brands analyzed did not make any commitment regarding the welfare of broilers. In Italy they have been evaluated seven companies. And even here the results are disappointing. ‘Very few’ those achieved by Mcdonald’sStarbucks, Burger KingDussmann, ‘scarce’ those of Kfcwhile for Subway the analysis speaks of ‘a first beginning’ and for Ikea of ‘progress in progress’. “This year’s results tell us some of the main ones food companies of the world are turning a blind eye to cruelty on animals that occurs on a large scale in their chains of supplying and, as a result, they are failing to meet the commitments they have made, ”he explains Alice Trumpetexecutive director of Animal Equality Italia.
Fast food analysis – World Animal Protection commissions the report The Pecking Order every year from 2019 for to monitor own the progress of the main brands of fast food. Companies are evaluated through information available to the public on the basis of two pillars: the voice ‘Commitments and Goals‘based on the specific criteria outlined in the European Chicken Commitment for EU companies and the voice ‘Performance reporting‘(reflecting the extent to which a company has implemented its commitments). These two pillars combine, with equal weighting, to obtain an overall percentage score, which is translated into levels. No company received the highest scores i.e. level 1 (leader), level 2 (buono) or 3 (under development). The other levels are the 4th (a first start), the 5th (poor) and the 6th (Very rare). According to the authors “most of the chicken meat served in these well-known fast food restaurants comes from the chickens they live in environments unhealthy, crowded and without natural light. Many of them suffer from zoppie severe and skin lesions “. It is not just a problem of Welfare animatedas “human health is also jeopardized by the excessive use of antibioticswhich fuels the proliferation of extremely dangerous bacteria ”. Domino’s AustraliaSubway Canada, Starbucks Usa and Subway Usa got i scores higher globally, still reaching level 4, which indicates that they are just ‘starting’ their path to better manage the welfare of chickens.
In Italy it is not better – In fact, since report it emerges that in some markets it is doing better than in others. To make a comparison between the countries, the companies present in all the markets (Burger King, KFC and McDonalds) were examined. In this case, Germania e France, reach overall average scores of 40%, while Italy remains at 16%. Most of the farms evaluated are performing poorly or very poorly in their approach to chicken welfare in their respective supply chains. And also when they hire engagements aligned with international criteria, “the evidence of implementation of these commitments is still scarce or non-existent”. This is why World Animal Protection and Animal Equality are asking the food industry to commit to change its global policies to drastically reduce the suffering of billions of chickens. For example, using Stingray slow growing. Fast growing ones, in fact, lead to overgrowth in just six weeks which, combined with low light levels and insufficient space to moveleads to serious health problems, including heart failure and pulmonary, muscle weakness e zoppie.
The ranking – Starting from the bottom, among the fast food restaurants with results considered ‘very poor’, therefore at the 6th level, there are Burger King ItaliaStarbucks Italia and Dussman and Mcdonald’s Italia, but the top three remain at 0% both in engagements e targets that in performance reporting, Mcdonald’s averages 20% (23% for commitments and 17% for reporting). ‘Poor’ (level 5) the overall result of KFC: reaches 44% (31% for commitments and 57% for monitoring and publishing performances). At level 4 (defined in the report ‘a first start’) Subway Italia with a overall score 50%, but 100% in the Commitments pillar and 0% in the second evaluation criterion. Basically, all achieved through goals. Finally, the third level (the maximum reached), called ‘Progress in progress’. The overall percentage score of Ikea Italy is 67%, “largely – underline the authors – thanks to the commitment (100%) of one company policy aligned with the European Chicken Commitment because, when it comes to report performance, Ikea fails to implement just as it happens in other European countries, they only reach 33% “.