Planet Friendly Award: Barilla
Italian manufacturer Barilla has walked away with a Special Recognition Award under the Planet Friendly Award banner at this year’s Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards.
The Planet Friendly Award recognises companies committing to ‘meaningful meat’ reduction targets – which also includes dairy, fish, or eggs – in their supply.
In Barilla’s case, the focus is on eggs. In 2012, the company pledged to go cage free on all shell eggs and egg ingredients. Barilla has also implemented cage free eggs across its entire global business, meaning that more than two-million hens are cage-free within its supply chain per year.
Production reformulation is another area Barilla has committed to animal welfare and sustainability. The company has progressively decreased the use of egg as an ingredient, leading to a reduction of 8% from 2016 to 2020. A total of 350,000 laying hens, therefore, have been taken out of its global supply chain.
Further, three new biscuit ranges across two brands have launched that contain either no eggs or a lower content of eggs. In the latter, a higher percentage of legumes was used as a replacement.
In the US, the business has rolled out a whole pasta range that contains 100% plant-based protein.
“Whilst the transition to higher welfare production systems is imperative, growing scientific evidence calls for a significant reduction in the overall production and consumption of animal protein,” said CIWF’s Director of Food Business Dr Tracey Jones.
“Barilla’s work to actively reduce egg consumption with the resulting fall in emissions is an excellent example of how this balance can be successfully achieved and deserves to be recognised.”
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