SÃO PAULO—Pastifício Primo, an important pasta company in Brazil, has announced it has joined with HSI to switch to a 100% cage-free egg supply chain by 2022.

In Brazil, egg-laying hens are typically confined for their whole lives in wire battery cages, so small that the hens cannot even fully stretch their wings. Both common sense and science agree that virtually immobilizing animals for their entire lives causes mental distress and significant physical pain.

The use of conventional battery cages for laying hens is banned or being phased out under laws or regulations throughout the EU, in six U.S. states and in Canada, New Zealand and Bhutan. Officials in the majority of states in India, the world’s third largest egg producer, have declared that the use of battery cages violates the country’s animal welfare legislation, and India is debating a national ban.

Pastifício Primo joins other food corporations that have committed to switching to exclusively cage-free eggs in Brazil and throughout Latin America, including Unilever, which has committed to a global cage-free egg supply chain by 2020, and Nestlé, the largest food company in the world, by 2025. After working with HSI, Burger King and Arcos Dorados, which operates McDonald’s in Brazil and 19 other countries in the region, committed to switching to 100 percent cage-free eggs, as did other restaurant operators, accounting for thousands of restaurants in Brazil and Latin America.

Become an All-Animals Defender.

In Brazil, Compass Group (GRSA) and Sodexo have previously announced their commitment to a global cage-free policy in partnership with HSI. Alsea, the largest restaurant operator in Latin America and Spain, and Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bakery company, announced their cage-free egg policies after several years of talks with HSI specialists. Corporations like JBS, BRF, Sapore, Casa do Pão de Queijo, International Meal Company (IMC), Grupo Trigo, Brazil Fast Food Corporation (BFFC), Subway, Giraffas, Habib’s, Grupo Halipar, Cargill, Bunge, Hemmer, Barilla, Intercontinental Hotels Group, AccorHotels, Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide have also pledged to go cage-free in Brazil.