General Mills announces plan to switch to cage-free eggs

General Mills announced plans this week to switch to cage-free eggs in its U.S. operations.

The Minneapolis, Minn.-based food manufacturing company, known for producing the brands Cheerios, Fiber One, Häagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Yoplait, Betty Crocker and Green Giant, said it’s now sourcing free-range eggs for all of its Häagen-Dazs ice cream made in Europe.

{mosads}The changeover is part of the company’s commitment to extend the global standard of five freedoms afforded to dairy cows to all animals across the food chain. They include freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition; discomfort; pain, injury and disease; fear and distress; and the freedom to engage in normal patterns of animal behavior.

“People care about where their food comes from and the animals that produce it, and we do too,” Steve Peterson, the company’s director of sustainable sourcing, said in statements on the company’s website.

But with the December 2014 outbreak of the avian bird flu, which has affected more than 48 million birds in 15 states, the company said sourcing only free-range eggs will be a challenge.

“We really see this as a long-term goal that will require unparalleled collaboration,” Peterson said in statements on the website. “We’ll work closely with our suppliers as they rebuild the supply chain to determine a path forward on this commitment.”

Earlier this week, an administrator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture called the outbreak of HPAI, highly pathogenic avian influenza, the largest animal health emergency in U.S. history.

Though USDA said the outbreak poses no threat to human health or food safety, it has wiped out about 10 percent of the egg-laying chicken population and 3 percent of the nation’s annual turkey production.