Animal Welfare-Friendly Practices
We are committed to working with and buying from farmers and suppliers who share our commitment to humane practices throughout an animal’s lifecycle.
Updated October 2024
Just as with our coffee, Starbucks goal is for all of our products to meet high quality and ethical standards. For the food and dairy we serve, this means a commitment to social responsibility standards with animal welfare as a primary focus. We are committed to working with and buying from farmers and suppliers who share our commitment to humane practices throughout an animal’s lifecycle.
Encouraging Industry Best Practices
In 2009, Starbucks established a buying preference in North America to use industry best practices for animal husbandry and processing for dairy, egg, and meat production. As this covers a wide range of practices, in consultation with key stakeholders including our partners (employees) and customers, key non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and through industry engagement, our current areas of focus include:
- Supporting the responsible use of antibiotics to promote animal health, including the elimination of routine uses, such as growth promotion and routine disease prevention, of medically important antibiotics
- Eliminating the use of artificial growth hormones, and for poultry, fast growing practices
- Addressing concerns related to dehorning, tail docking, and castration both with and without anesthesia
- Phasing out gestation crates for pigs and cages for chickens
- Improving the welfare of broiler chickens
Specifically, our priority is to ensure we offer food made with ingredients such as cage-free eggs, gestation crate-free pork, and poultry processed through more humane systems such as CAK. For each of these focus areas, we work with the industry and stakeholders on increasing available supply and creating reasonable timeframes for achieving our goals.
Poultry Welfare
Cage-free Eggs
Since Starbucks first began buying cage-free eggs in 2008, we have made significant progress, increasing our purchases year over year. While there have been great strides in availability of the supply in the U.S., there is still work to be done across the industry to increase supply to address market availability globally. We remain committed to working with our suppliers toward our goal to exclusively use 100 percent cage-free eggs and egg products in company-operated stores globally. This commitment extends to all Starbucks branded products, including those supplied to our licensee business partners in the U.S. and Canada.
As of April 2023, in our U.S. and Canadian company-operated stores 100% of eggs are cage-free, inclusive of branded products supplied to our licensee business partners in those markets. In our EMEA and U.K. company-operated markets, 99.9% of eggs are cage-free. In Asia markets where Starbucks operates, such as China and Japan, cage-free egg production is limited and supply is not yet widely available. Starbucks remains committed to increasing cage-free egg supply in all company-operated stores globally, in partnership with industry stakeholders.
Antibiotics
Starbucks engaged with our suppliers and set a goal to serve only poultry raised without the routine use of medically important antibiotics in all company-operated U.S. stores by 2020. We met that goal in 2018 and proudly continue to serve poultry raised without the routine use of medically important antibiotics.
Broiler Chicken Welfare
We are committed to improve conditions for broiler chickens and are working with our suppliers, licensees, and others in the industry to help ensure that by 2024 the chicken we buy for our U.S. stores is produced in alignment with the following Global Animal Partnership (GAP) standards as assessed by a third party auditor:
- Use of breeds proven to have better welfare outcomes
- Reduce maximum stocking density to provide birds more space
- Improve living environments including litter, lighting, and enrichment
- Process chickens more humanely through a multi-step controlled-atmosphere processing system
Sow Housing
Starbucks is phasing out the excessive use of gestation stalls for the sows (mother pig) in our supply chain by 2030. The excessive use of gestation stalls would include stalls where gestating sows do not have the ability to turn around. Starbucks is working toward a 2024 goal to specify 100% group-housed pork in our supply chain. Group housing significantly reduces the amount of time a sow (mother pig) spends in a gestation crate or stall. This commitment extends to Starbucks branded products in the U.S. and Canada, including those supplied to our licensee business partners in the U.S. and Canada.
For fiscal year 2023, more than 75% of the pork Starbucks sourced in the U.S. and Canada was group housed, and the Company anticipates meeting its stated goal of 100% group-housed pork by the end of 2024 for Starbucks-branded products in the U.S. and Canada, including those supplied to Starbucks U.S. and Canadian licensee business partners. Starbucks has previously disclosed progress against that goal in its annual Impact Report and will continue to do so.
Our group housing goal is an important step toward improving housing conditions for sows. We believe industry leaders and experts, policymakers, and advocates should work together to develop and advance definitions, guidance, and standards that can support broad industry transition to minimizing the use of gestation crates and support the welfare of sows. We are committed to being part of the conversation to make progress in service of our animal welfare-friendly practices and aspirations. As this collective work progresses and the market further develops, we will continually reevaluate our sow housing commitment with key stakeholders in support of our 2030 goal.
Establishing a Global Standard
While we prioritize compliance with existing local animal welfare laws and regulations, we also recognize there is considerable variance in regulatory rigor across the many markets in which we do business. In cases where national standards are not in place, are minimal, or are not consistently enforced, we use the standards set for our U.S. business as our guideline. In addition to committing to this for our own business, we support the development of global science-based national and international standards and guidelines.
Driving Toward Industry-wide Solutions
Some of the issues we would like our suppliers to address must happen at the industry level. Recognizing the responsibility we have as the voice for our partners (employees) and customers, we continue to look for opportunities to collaborate with others across our industry and the NGO community to promote best practices. We participate and engage with organizations where issues related to animal welfare can be addressed industry-wide.
Addressing Issues in our Supply Chain
In the event concerns arise with the practices of a supplier, our approach is to work with them to correct the issues, but there are times when we halt business due to the nature of the issues and until adequate resolution takes place.
Commitment to Transparency
Starbucks is committed to transparent and ongoing disclosure of our progress towards achieving and maintaining our global Animal Welfare goals. We will publicly publish annual updates on our performance throughout our company-operated stores and provide information to industry organizations and other stakeholders as requested.