Cage-free eggs gaining popularity among shoppers, store chains

If you love your chickens, set them free.

That could be the mantra surrounding the recent announcement by Southeastern Grocers, which operates the Winn-Dixie supermarkets in the Columbus-Phenix City area. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based grocery company also has stores called BI-LO and Harveys.

Southeastern Grocers, under President and Chief Executive Officer Ian McLeod, who has promised to shake things up to improve the company and grow its customer base, has pledged to sell only cage-free eggs via its private label within two years. It also hopes to make all brands of eggs sold at its stores cage-free by the year 2025.

“In the past two years alone, we’ve seen an average increase of nearly 30 percent in sales of our cage-free eggs,” said Michael Bove, Southeastern Grocers’ group vice president, in a statement. “It’s clear this is both a product and cause that’s important to our customers.”

Cage-free is the term used for giving hens that lay eggs enough space to stretch their wings and strut about, while also having a nesting area for them to deposit those eggs headed for the market. The thought process is that it is more humane and less stressful for the animals, with some customers swearing that the product is tastier and yields eggs with better texture, such as fluffier scrambled eggs.

For store chains such as Winn-Dixie, it’s a matter of finding farms that can supply their large demand. Southeastern Grocers, for instance, operates about 750 supermarkets in seven states. The company in 2008 committed to giving producers of cage-free eggs preference in purchasing from them.

Southeastern Grocers said it has involved The Humane League and the Humane Society in its current move to go cage-free. “Free range” takes it a step further by allowing hens to move about outdoors and eat insects on top of their regular feed.

Cage-free eggs are gaining popularity among grocery stores, retailers, restaurants and even entertainment entities, with The Walt Disney Company saying it wants to do so in its theme parks and on its cruise ships by the end of 2016.

Winn-Dixie has five supermarkets in Columbus and one on U.S. Highway 80 in the Ladonia area of Phenix City.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Cage-free eggs gaining popularity among shoppers, store chains."