SAFE Animal Squad
A cage-free commitment is a company’s way of letting people know that it does not support the cruel caging of hens. Check out SAFE’s regularly updated Cage-free Directory to find out which businesses in New Zealand are cage-free and which aren’t.
The business currently has a cage-free policy in place
The business uses or sells cage-free whole shell eggs
The business uses cage-free egg ingredients in all of the products it sells
The business will be cage-free by the named date
Supermarkets and retailersBP 2025 Bin Inn 2020 Commonsense Organics Countdown North Island 2024 Countdown South Island 2025 Farro Fresh Four Square 2027 Fresh Choice 2025 Fresh Collective 2027 Gilmours 2027 Huckleberry Mobil Night ‘n Day 2025 New World 2027 On the Spot 2027 Pak’nSave 2027 Piko Whole Foods Raeward Fresh 2027 Shopwrite 2027 Super Value 2027 Trents Wholesale 2027 | Restaurants, cafes, takeawaysBakers Delight NZ Burger Fuel Burger King Cobb & Co Coffee Club Denny’s 2024 Esquires Coffee Habitual Fix Hell Pizza Kings Plant Barn Cafés McDonald’s Moustache Milk and Cookie Bar Nando’s Pita Pit Robert Harris 2020 by 2025 Shakey Isles Starbucks 2020 Subway The Cheesecake Shop 2022 Wendy’s |
Hotels & CruisesAccor Hotels 2028 Best Western 2025 Bolton Hotel Brook Serene Hotels Carnival Cruises Cordis Hilton Hotel Group 2025 Intercontinental Hotel Group 2025 Left Bank Hotel Marriott 2025 Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings ltd 2025 The Rees Royal Caribbean 2022 Wyndham Destinations 2025 Wyndham Hotels and Resorts 2025 | Food ServiceBidfood New Zealand 2024 Compass Group 2025 Feed Me Food Boxes Just Cook It Muscle Fuel My Food Bag Primal Kitchen Real Meal Service Foods 2025 Sodexo 2025 WOOP |
Manufacture BrandsArnott’s Best Foods Breadcraft Cadburys 2025 Cookie time 2023 Delmaine Fine Food 2024 General Mills 2025 Kellogg’s 2025 Leader Products 2021 McCain 2025 Mars 2021 Mondelez 2025 Mrs Mac’s Pies Nestle 2025 Original Foods Baking Co. 2027 Pepsico 2025 Unilever 2025 |
Please note that this list is not exhaustive
Cage-free is the future and these businesses are falling behind the times! SAFE has reached out to the companies listed below asking each of them to join the global cage-free movement, unfortunately, our requests have either been rejected or ignored.
= We suspect this company is cage-free but require an official cage-free policy
Supermarkets and RetailersCaltex Fruit World Gull Tai Ping Trading HotelsAmora Hotels Debrett Naumi Auckland Airport Hotel QT Queenstown Rydges Sky City Hotel Wyndham Hotel Group Food Service and catering companiesNorthern Foods Spotless NZ | Restaurants, cafes, takeawaysBrumbies Bakeries Carl’s Junior Coffee Culture Coffix Gloria Jeans Dominos Donut King Dunkin Donuts Hollywood Bakery Krispy Kreme Muffin Break Mojo Oporto Pizza Hut St Pierre’s Sushi Sierra Café |
Manufacture BrandsBack Country Foods Bakels ltd Barker Fruit Processors Coupland’s Bakeries Dad’s Pies Emerald Food Group Fonterra Foods Franklin Foods Fresh To Go Goodman Fielder Hansells Food Group Highmark Just Foods Kaye’s Bakery Loaf Limited Melba’s NZ Milligans Food Group Mrs. Higgins ProLife Foods Quality Foods Southland San Remo |
Please note that this list is not exhaustive
A cage-free commitment is a company’s way of letting people know that it does not support the cruel caging of hens.
Cage-free commitments often present themselves in one of two ways:
In an ideal world, everyone and every business would simply turn their backs on any form of animal exploitation. Unfortunately, this isn’t likely to happen any time soon. In the meantime, SAFE is working hard to help hens and their chicks across all types of farming systems and getting rid of cages is a vital step in the journey towards a future where all animals are valued as individuals, not commodities.
Cage-free commitments are a fundamental component of SAFE’s ongoing cage-free campaign. Each corporate cage-free commitment gives the egg industry another reason to move away from the cruel caging of hens. While they are not perfect, cage-free commitments are a huge improvement from a company’s previous policy, which is to continue using or selling cruel cage eggs indefinitely.
You can learn more about cage-free commitments and the importance of corporate campaigning here.
A company will either make a commitment to use only cage-free whole-shell eggs or make a 100% cage-free commitment that includes both whole-shell eggs and liquid ingredient eggs. SAFE encourages companies with cage-free commitments for just whole-shell eggs to update their commitments to include a future date where all liquid ingredient eggs used will also be cage-free.
Imagine you have two cafés next door to each other. The first, let’s call it Café Blue, has a cage-free commitment for whole-shell eggs and the second, Café Green, has a cage-free commitment for both whole-shell and liquid ingredient eggs.
Café Blue will only use whole-shell eggs from cage-free hens, meaning any fresh eggs on the menu will be cage-free. This cage-free commitment won’t extend to prepared cabinet food items containing egg ingredients, such as cakes and pastries.
Café Green will use cage-free whole-shell eggs as well as cage-free ingredient eggs. This means that any fresh eggs on the menu will be cage-free, and any egg ingredients found within its cabinet food items will also be from cage-free hens.
It’s common for businesses to commit to going cage-free at a future date. This allows the business some time to work with its supplier and phase out its use of cage eggs over the selected time period.
As much as we would like to see businesses switch to cage-free overnight, change can take time and SAFE encourages businesses to set achievable cage-free goals.
As a customer, you have the right to ask for change. If you discover your local café, restaurant, hotel, petrol station or even your favourite pie brand uses cage eggs, there is plenty you can do to initiate change.
Ask. Next time you have breakfast at a café, dine out for dinner or purchase food from a retailer, ask if the business uses only 100% cage-free eggs. Let them know that you are concerned about the welfare of caged hens and would like to see their business move away from using cage eggs.
Reach out. Contact businesses via social media to ask whether they have a cage-free egg policy. Politely let them know that you want to support businesses which don’t source eggs from the cruel cage egg industry.
Take your business elsewhere. If a company refuses to acknowledge the issue and do the right thing by going cage-free, choose to instead support only cage-free businesses. Money talks and losing customers to cage-free competitors will speak volumes.
Let us know! If the business you are concerned about isn’t already on our no-policy list, let SAFE know! Our team will pass your thoughts on to the business and encourage it to do the right thing for hens and ditch cage eggs. Contact Safe
You can take action for hens right now by choosing hen-friendly egg alternatives. To learn some practical tips on egg substitutes, go to safe.org.nz/egg-substitutes
You can also find out what’s happening overseas here.
Sign up for the Plant-Based Challenge! Eating a plant-based diet is the most important thing you can do to help animals. It's a simple switch, but it makes a big difference. We bet you’ll find it tastier and easier than you ever imagined!
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