More Filipinos consuming cage-free eggs, survey reveals

FOR the longest time, the idea of eating healthy is not really lost in the minds of people around the world. In fact, the pandemic even fueled the desire of families and people around the world to choose to eat vitamin- and nutrient-rich foods that will boost the immune system so that they can stay healthy and combat any virus or disease that will come along.

Even in the consumption of livestock like cows, chickens, or pigs, there’s been a constant interest in consuming livestock that are raised naturally, meaning those that are not confined in suffocating spaces and can freely roam around, and are nourished with natural and chemicalfree feeds.

One of those that took people’s fancy are eggs since they are easily accessible and affordable but offers a lot of nutritious value as well. Even with eggs, a lot of terms have been coined to make it a top choice of healthy food that consumers can consider as part of their diet.

Cage-free or free-range?

THERE’S been a lot of debate as to which is better. According to Eater. com, a website focused on food and dining, “free-range,” a term coined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are those eggs that “come from hens that have some sort of access to the outdoors…but doesn’t mean that the hens actually go outdoors, or that the outdoor space is more than a small, fenced-in area; it simply implies that a door exists that a farmer could at some point open.”

There is another term called “cagefree,” again courtesy of the USDA, wherein, Eater.com said, “the eggs come from hens that, put simply, aren’t caged. They can freely roam a building, room, or enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water during their production cycle, but has no access to the outdoors.”

An article that appeared in Avinews.com cited several reasons to consume cage-free eggs, which apparently has “a fresher taste, an enhanced nutritional profile, that they are products of hens that enjoy a wide habitat with access to open air, that’s why they are also called ‘happy hen eggs,’ that there is respect for the animal and general improvement of its welfare, and is of high quality where consumers and animals benefit equally.”

Only cage-free eggs in the PHL

PERHAPS the cage-free eggs fever has already caught on in the country if the results of a recent national consumer survey were to be believed.

Titled “The Philippines Consumer Survey For Cage-free Eggs,” it revealed that a large majority of Filipino consumers prefer that food companies, those in the food industry such as restaurants, retailers and packaged food brands, should source their eggs from farms that use cage-free production methods.

About 83 percent of Filipinos said that restaurants, supermarkets, packaged food companies, and other similar establishments should purchase the eggs from suppliers where the hens live in cage-free surroundings, while 80 percent said they’d lean more on patronizing a food brand that uses cage-free eggs.

And apparently, of the hundreds that were polled, many wouldn’t mind paying premium price just to be able to transition to cage-free eggs from the traditional ones. “89 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that ‘the advantages of cage-free eggs in terms of food safety and quality are worth spending a little extra money on, while 76 percent of consumers were willing to pay 10 to 25 percent more for cage-free eggs in supermarkets, and 74 percent were willing to spend 5 to 10 percent more for a restaurant meal or packaged food product that used cage-free eggs.’”

Aside from this, interest in animal welfare was also a major element with regard to consumer attitudes. When presented with the statement that “hens that produce eggs should not be kept in cages, that they should have the freedom to walk and move around,” 95 percent of them agreed, while 99 percent said food companies should buy their eggs and meat supply only “from a supply chain that adheres to humane standards of animal treatment,” and 31 percent cited the safety of cage-free eggs as a valuable advantage.

Consumer attitude

WITH these results from the survey that was conducted by leading APAC consumer research agency GMO Research, consumer attitude is already evolving toward “seeking higher animal welfare and sustainability standards from the food brands they patronize.”

Given this evolution in customers’ attitude, several major food brands operating in the Philippines like Jollibee, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Ascott, Metromart, including the SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) and Robinsons Hotels and Resorts have already committed to using only cagefree eggs in the coming years.

“These new survey findings underscore how important it is for food companies to prioritize animal welfare and other ethical sourcing practices in their operations,” according to Robyn Del Rosario, Sustainability Program Manager at Lever Foundation, a non-government organization that supports companies in the Philippines and across Asia regarding sustainable sourcing. “As consumer awareness and demand for improvements like cage-free eggs continue to rise, businesses can seize the opportunity to enhance their brand reputation by aligning their sourcing standards with consumers’ expectations.”