Our commitment to animal health and well-being is unwavering and guided by our holistic, science-based Sustainable Animal Protein Principles. These principles consider the interrelated, complex issues involved in maintaining sustainable food production systems.
We support the Five Freedoms for all animals used for food in our supply chain, which include:
Our animal protein sourcing is guided by a set of sustainable sourcing principles:
All chicken, eggs and dairy served domestically by Yum! Brands are USDA-inspected and supplied by domestic farms that operate according to industry-standard animal welfare guidelines. We are now in the process of synchronizing our animal welfare programs globally with the aim of adopting a foundational animal welfare auditing system and policies for poultry, eggs, beef, pork and dairy.
Our dedication to animal health and well-being requires thoughtful, comprehensive health management programs that may necessitate the use of antibiotics to maintain or restore good animal health. We are aware of the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and support One Health, a holistic and multisectoral long-term effort to combat AMR by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health and other key stakeholders. We believe AMR jeopardizes several UN Sustainable Development Goals and that responsible and judicious use of antimicrobials in agriculture is critical to world food security and beneficial to human, animal and environmental health. All of Yum!’s brands comply with the USDA guidelines that went into effect in 2017, to minimize antimicrobial resistance requiring that our U.S. suppliers remove medically important antimicrobials used for production purposes and ensuring that the use of such drugs for therapeutic treatment is overseen by a licensed veterinarian.
We have been working with our suppliers in recent years to minimize, where possible, the use of antimicrobials (including antibiotics) important to human medicine as defined by WHO. Each of our brands has made significant strides toward eliminating human crossover antibiotics in our poultry supply chain:
Learn more about our Good Antimicrobial Stewardship efforts.
We are currently exploring long- and short-term goals related to the sustainable sourcing of each of our key animal protein commodities. Taco Bell is one of the largest beef purchasers in the U.S., serving 290 million pounds of 100 percent USDA premium ground beef each year. Given the importance of beef on Taco Bell’s menu, creating a more sustainable beef supply chain in the U.S. is a priority. To that end, Taco Bell is a member of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB), a network of beef experts from the supply chain, academia and research, environmental and animal welfare organizations and veterinarians. This stakeholder engagement will help Taco Bell ensure that the U.S.-grown beef it sources meets Yum!’s standards for sustainable sourcing.
Taco Bell met its 2016 goal to exclusively serve 100 percent cage-free eggs in all U.S. Taco Bell corporate and franchise-owned restaurants, making the transition faster than any other national quick-service restaurant brand. Since then, the brand expanded and achieved its secondary goal to source 100 percent cage-free egg ingredients, meaning ingredients in all of its mayo-based sauces and desserts are now made using cage-free eggs.