OUR APPROACH TO CHICKEN WELFARE

OUR  FREE RANGE CHICKEN

BurgerFuel championed the offering of free-range chicken in 2014, becoming the first major restaurant chain in New Zealand to move to 100% free-range chicken.

Since then, we have continued to source from suppliers operating under SPCA certification, representing some of the highest animal welfare standards commercially available in New Zealand at the scale required to supply our nationwide network. The SPCA remains one of New Zealand’s most trusted and respected animal welfare organisations.

SPCA Certified farms adhere to the Five Domains model of animal welfare. The Five Domains model is a holistic assessment of animal welfare which addresses both minimising suffering and actively promoting positive emotional states. All free-range farms are independently audited to ensure they meet SPCA standards and exceed animal welfare standards set by MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries).

WHAT IS THE BCC?

The Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) is a voluntary set of animal welfare standards for chickens raised for meat, developed by animal welfare organisations and promoted to food businesses internationally.

The commitment seeks to introduce additional welfare requirements across chicken farming and processing, including the use of approved slower-growing chicken breeds, reduced stocking densities, changes to lighting and environmental enrichment, and specific processing and stunning methods.

In New Zealand, meeting all of the BCC requirements would require significant changes within the wider poultry supply chain, including changes to chicken breeds and processing practices that are not currently commercially available at scale.

WHY WE HAVE NOT SIGNED

BurgerFuel initially engaged with activists, Animals Aotearoa, to understand the Better Chicken Commitment. We disengaged when it became obvious that we were being pressured to make a commitment without sufficient information about the long-term sustainability of the commitments sought and the impact those commitments would have on our customers.

We take commitments like this seriously. We also believe constructive partnerships require respectful, good-faith engagement. Instead, we faced aggressive and threatening communications indicating BurgerFuel would be singled out in a negative public campaign if we did not sign. That does not provide the basis for a productive relationship, and we question the effectiveness of threatening and targeting businesses like ours that have championed higher-welfare, free-range chicken, if change is what they seek.

We have taken the time to understand what the Better Chicken Commitment would mean in practice, including discussions with our suppliers, others within the New Zealand poultry industry and the SPCA. Based on the information available to us, we do not currently see a realistic or commercially viable pathway to delivering all of the proposed requirements in New Zealand. Combined with an approach to engagement that we felt placed pressure on BurgerFuel to commit before these important questions could be adequately answered, we have chosen not to sign the Better Chicken Commitment at this time.

Our decision not to sign the Better Chicken Commitment should not be mistaken for a lack of commitment to animal welfare. Animal welfare matters to us, and it matters to our customers, and our decision to move to free-range chicken more than a decade ago reflects that. What also matters is environmental impact, consistency of supply, product quality and product cost. We have to consider all of those factors together, and we won’t make a promise on behalf of our customers until we understand what that promise means for them and are confident it can be delivered.

To date, Animals Aotearoa has not provided us with further information that adequately addresses our questions around the environmental supply chain and cost implications of the Better Chicken Commitment. We remain open to receiving that information and to considering any credible, commercially viable pathway that could deliver better welfare outcomes within the New Zealand market.

We will keep this page updated should new information become available or our position change.

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