Published 21/10/2010

Compassion proudly awarded over 40 European organisations on 20th October 2010 at the European Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards held at the Eiffel Tower, Paris.

42 Good Egg Awards and 4 Good Chicken Awards were presented to EU organisations making positive steps towards higher farm animal welfare standards. Top companies including Coop Italia, Unilever, IKEA food, Subway and Delhaize were praised at the prestigious ceremony.

The collective commitments and practices of the 45 European food companies awarded in Paris are set to benefit over 3.7 million   laying hens and over 10 million broiler chickens.
Amongst the winners was Coop Italia, Italy's largest chain of supermarket which, after having gone cage-free on its own brand shell eggs in 2007, has now gone cage-free on all shell eggs, the first Italian retailer to do so.

Roberto Fiammenghi, Member of Coop Italia's Board in charge of Food policy said:

"Coop Italia endeavours to transfer the wishes and expectations of the consumers in to our products. These wishes and expectations in turn become the values of Coop Italia. The decision to ban battery eggs completely from our supermarkets is a very important one and we believe it will have positive consequences in entire Italian egg production system. After receiving a 'commendation' in 2007, Coop Italia is particularly proud of its full Good Egg Award received today".

This is the fourth year Compassion have presented Good Egg Awards to food companies who have taken commended steps towards more ethical egg production and higher laying hen welfare. However, for the first time this year, the awards congratulated organisations with the new Good Chicken Awards category, which recognises tangible achievements for the welfare of meat chickens.

Steve McIvor, Director of Food Business at Compassion, said:

"We are thrilled to have so many great European companies winning awards and making such a positive difference to millions of farm animals every year. The awards are vital for Compassion to recognise and celebrate organisation's achievements in successfully improving welfare standards in food production."

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