A decade of corporate commitments to eliminate cages from egg supply chains is showing results, with most major global companies evaluated in a new report either fulfilling their commitments or reporting progress toward them.
The Open Wing Alliance (OWA), a global coalition of nearly 84 animal protection organizations in more than 72 countries, evaluated 171 companies across the hospitality, manufacturing, restaurant, foodservice and retail sectors for its Fair and Fowl 2026 Cage-Free Egg Report. Of those companies, 118 have either fulfilled their cage-free commitments or are making positive progress toward completing the transition.
The findings follow 2025, the largest deadline year for corporate cage-free commitments in the global food industry. More than 2,800 companies worldwide have pledged to eliminate cages from their egg supply chains.
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Some companies have completed the transition ahead of their original deadlines. The Cheesecake Factory eliminated cages six years ahead of schedule, Caffè Nero reached its goal ahead of its 2026 deadline, and Viking Cruises achieved full global compliance within a year of publishing its commitment.
“The cage-free transition is no longer a question of whether it can be done. Companies operating across vastly different markets and supply chains have shown that it can,” said Elisa Bianco, Senior Global Corporate Relations Manager at The Humane League, a founding member of the Open Wing Alliance. “The small number of companies still falling behind are increasingly the exception. They need to fulfill their commitments or provide a transparent roadmap for how they will remove the use of cruel cages in their supply chain.”
Leaders and laggards emerge across industries
The report names companies in each sector that have delivered on their public cage-free commitments while maintaining transparency about their progress.
Among the 2026 sector leaders are Best Western Hotels & Resorts and Royal Caribbean Group in hospitality; Compass Group in foodservice; Ferrero in manufacturing; Pizza Express and Bloomin’ Brands in restaurants; and REWE Group in retail.
The report also identifies companies that have fallen behind because of missed deadlines, inadequate reporting or a lack of transparency. Those include Norwegian Cruise Line and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in hospitality; LSG Group in foodservice; Unilever in manufacturing; Le Pain Quotidien in restaurants; and Aldi Süd in retail.
The gap is increasingly one of transparency as well as implementation. According to the report, while many companies continue to publish progress updates and plans, others have allowed deadlines to pass without disclosing results, removed commitment timelines from their websites or stopped reporting altogether.
For companies that have missed their goals, the report calls for publishing clear cage-free roadmaps, publicly reporting progress and using tools such as cage-free impact incentives in markets where cage-free egg supply remains limited.
Why cage-free housing matters
Billions of hens around the world remain confined in cages that severely restrict their movement and prevent them from performing many natural behaviors. Cage-free systems provide hens with greater freedom of movement and opportunities to engage in behaviors such as nesting, perching and dust bathing.
To view the full Fair and Fowl 2026 Global Cage-Free Egg Report, click here. For more information on the global cage-free movement and how you can take action, visit OpenWingAlliance.org.