Au Bon Pain continues move to eggs from cage-free hens

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Au Bon Pain, a Boston-based chain of café bakeries, announced that it will become “fully cage-free” in the supply of eggs for its menu by 2017.

Photo taken from Au Bon Pain’s website.

The chain launched that initiative in 2009 and said in a press release that as of now, 25 percent of its egg sandwich purchases already are cage free.

Au Bon Pain also said that it is commited to eliminating from its US supply chain pork from animals bred using gestation crates by 2017.

In a statement, Au Bon Pain chief executive Sue Morelli said: “Animal welfare and humane treatment have been important values to Au Bon Pain and our customers. Our announcements today reflect those values and continue our commitment. Au Bon Pain also is requiring suppliers to outline timelines and steps to achieve these goals.”

Similar announcements have been made recently by Oscar Mayer, McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Costco, Safeway, and Kroger, and those announcements point to a public demand to end intensive confinement systems like battery cages and gestation crates, said the Humane League, an animal advocacy organization.

In a statement, David Coman-Hidy, director of campaigns for the Humane League, said, “The Humane League is excited that a chain like Au Bon Pain is saying ‘enough’ to producers that confine farm animals in tiny cages and crates.”