KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King: the inconvenient truth about the welfare of chickens in Italy

Fast-food restaurants in Italy? The latest in terms of animal welfare: almost zero, in fact, is the their commitment to eliminating all major chicken welfare issuesnot even on the most important criteria such as the reduction of densities and the transition to slower growing breeds.

This is what emerges from the European ranking drawn up by The Pecking Orderthe report that evaluates how large restaurant and fast food chains address the welfare of chickens raised in their supply chains compared to the request of the European Chicken Commitment (ECC).

A relationship that focuses on poultry because in numerical terms chickens are the animals most often bred in conditions that are almost always unacceptable, also due to the way in which they have been selected to enhance their growth to the detriment of their quality of life.

What are the minimum well-being conditions

The criteria adopted are those envisaged by the European Chicken Commitment (ECC), a platform that defines the minimum welfare conditions on which companies are committed.

Is all this guaranteed in Italy?

Not exactly. From the newly published data of the 2024 edition of The Pecking Order, the report of which Ère Animali is a partner in Italy and which examines the communications public reports of the main fast food and restaurant chains to evaluate how they deal with the living conditions of the chickens raised in their supply chains, a decidedly alarming picture emerges.

This year the Italian analysis concerned:

As last year, the TPO 2024 analysis confirms that it is the companies operating in Germany and France that take the welfare of chickens much more into consideration than other countries, including Italy. Indeed, this year theItaly is getting worse
so much in the evaluation that it came to occupy the last position among all 7 countries analyzed.

Looking in detail at the average scores recorded by companies in the various countries, we observe that French companies have
achieved the highest performance, with an overall average score of 36% (36% in 2023). German companies were the
second best performing, with an overall average score of 33% (37% in 2023), followed by the Czech Republic with 19%,
from Spain with 18% (23% in 2023), from Poland with 17% (18% in 2023), from Italy with 14% (19% in 2023) and from
Romania with 14% (17% in 2023):

Here with us, only the companies analyzed IKEA has published a commitment to eliminate all major welfare issues for these animals. Compared to last year, Subway’s commitment disappears, while the other 5 companies (Autogrill, Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s and Starbucks) show no changes compared to last year and continue to have no public commitment, not even on the most important criteria such as the reduction of densities and the transition to slower growing breeds.

AAA seeking commitments from KFC

KFC Italia is a far cry from industry leaders and its counterparts in France and Germany. Despite some progress in communication, its commitments remain at the lowest levels, signaling a lack of transparency and significant improvement targets for the coming years.

fast food chickens

Not only does KFC Italia show no improvement compared to 2023, but the low score recorded for commitments (21%)
It also indicates that it has not yet planned future goals to align with ECC standards. Furthermore, a certain discrepancy is noted
between declared commitments and communication of actual progress. While KFC shows that it has made some progress in communication, its engagements And goals remain at the lowest levels, signaling a lack of transparency or concrete actions planned for the coming years.

KFC is already in the spotlight

Already last year, chilling images coming from the sheds and collected by animal protection organizations during undercover investigations made the rounds on the web, whenessereanimalihighlighted that this very chain had not yet joined the ECC in Italy, as instead it happened in Germany and France.

For this reason, a petition and a campaign was launched aimed at the top management of KFC, inviting them to realize the commitment to animal welfare.