Position

Across Mars’ diverse portfolio of products, many of our recipes contain ingredients that come from animals – such as dairy in our chocolate, eggs in our cooking sauces, and meat and animal derivatives in our pet food.

Like our consumers, we care deeply about the welfare of animals within the food supply chain. We fully comply with all applicable local laws and regulations regarding farm animal welfare when sourcing ingredients derived from animals for use in our Mars products. Beyond this, we look to leading guidance from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to shape our Mars animal welfare commitments

Commitments

Mars is also working to move toward higher welfare standards in the sourcing of two ingredients: 

• Cage-Free Egg Sourcing

  Since 2011, Mars uses 100% cage-free eggs for all human food products (e.g., confectionery, cooking sauces and rice products) in Europe. In 2016, Mars further committed to using 100% cage-free eggs for all human food products in the US, Canada and Australia by 2020. We are on track to meet this commitment in the US and Canada but due to challenges in the Australian marketplace, we will achieve 100% cage-free eggs in Australia by 2025. We are currently working with suppliers and the broader industry to deliver our commitment and the latest progress is shared on our website.

• Dairy Cow Welfare

  As a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform’s Dairy Working Group, Mars Wrigley is helping to propel the development of a business-to-business model for dairy sustainability. This model seeks to harmonize standards and audits and to recognize national and company standards to improve efficiency and ensure focus on continuous improvement on farms. Ultimately, the model will allow us to source from suppliers who are advancing sustainable farming practices that protect animal welfare, the environment and human rights.