Animal welfare
Animal welfare policy
Although General Mills is primarily a plant-forward food company, with large businesses such as Cheerios and Nature Valley, we use some animal-derived ingredients and have long worked to support the humane treatment of animals in agriculture. This helps to ensure a resilient supply chain and aligns with our ambition to stand for good.
At General Mills we do not raise or handle livestock, but we aim to protect animals and work closely with our suppliers to do so. We regularly engage with stakeholders focused on animal health and welfare and leverage industry initiatives that advance livestock production. Our Animal Welfare Policy outlines our approach throughout the global supply chain for our retail food products, including:
Advancing Common Principles
To advance toward a more sustainable planet including animal welfare, we apply and work to achieve the “five freedoms” for all animals in our supply chain.
- Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition.
- Freedom from discomfort.
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease.
- Freedom from fear and distress.
- Freedom to engage in normal patterns of animal behavior.
Focused Efforts
Egg production
Eggs are an important ingredient in many of our products, and we strive to ensure that the hens laying these eggs are treated humanely.
We aim to purchase 100 percent cage free- or free-range eggs for our operations globally. By the end of fiscal 2025, 84% of global egg purchases for our operations were cage-free or free-range.
Pork production
General Mills supports the development of pregnant sow housing alternatives and has been communicating this support to suppliers over the years.
Our commitment has been, and remains, to source all of the pork we buy for our U.S. business from systems in which pregnant sows are held in gestation crates for a maximum of nine days per gestation cycle unless there are health reasons for further segregation from the group. In fiscal 2025, we maintained 100% progress against our commitment.
While we are committed to eliminating all use of gestation crates even beyond prolonged use to eventually reach zero days of gestation crate use per pregnancy cycle, we understand that there may be very limited occasions when keeping a sow isolated from others could be beneficial, such as for short-term medical procedures. In those limited instances, sows should be given enough room to turn around.
Poultry
General Mills supports progress within the poultry industry toward a higher standard of animal welfare for broiler chickens. By higher standard, we mean birds that are:
- Raised with more space (a stocking density of 6 lbs/ft² or less).
- Raised with litter, lighting, and enrichment that meets Global Animal Partnership (GAP) standards.
- Processed using controlled-atmospheric stunning from breeds accepted by Global Animal Partnership (GAP) or the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).
The volume of our broiler chicken purchases represents less than 0.05% of the broiler market. Nevertheless, we have supported industry progress through several steps:
- Enacted new governance processes across all our animal welfare commitments.
- Engaged current and prospective suppliers to assess their ability to support us in this journey, including site visits to prospective supply locations.
- Onboarded alternate suppliers who are further along in adoption of these standards.
- Contracted for chicken that meets these standards, working through verification and quality testing.
- Explored how our Regenerative Agriculture ambition could help further a paradigm shift in farm animal well-being. For example:
- We invested in research on the benefits of pastured poultry production by partnering with North Carolina State University to commission a study comparing pastured and conventional poultry production systems. The literature review and study intend to understand outcomes across animal welfare and management, microbiology and food safety and meat quality.
- We have also provided funding to the Regenerative Agricultural Alliance, which seeks to codify the benefits of having chickens acting in their natural roles within ecosystems. Learnings from this work will help inform our approach moving forward.
More information can be found in the Animal Welfare section of our Global Responsibility Report.
At the end of fiscal 2025, 4% of our contracted U.S. volume met these standards, and an additional 2% met all but the controlled atmosphere stunning standard.
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What does animal welfare mean?Animal welfare refers to how animals are cared for and the conditions in which they live. It includes their health, comfort and ability to express natural behaviors, free from unnecessary stress or harm.
At General Mills, we do not raise or handle livestock, but we work with suppliers to support responsible practices. We use established frameworks, including the Five Freedoms, to help define and guide animal welfare across our supply chain. -
Why is animal welfare important in agriculture?Animal welfare is important because it supports both ethical treatment of animals and the long-term sustainability of the food system. Animals that are well cared for are generally healthier, which can contribute to food safety, product quality and more resilient supply chains. It also reflects growing expectations from consumers, farmers and industry stakeholders.
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