On October 31, Taipei City announced that each student will be served at least one cage-free egg in their student lunches each semester as a first step towards more animal-friendly sourcing.

The policy will apply to all elementary, junior high and senior high schools in the city’s lunch program which serves approximately 230,000 lunches a day. Students will also be given a class on farmed animal welfare to accompany the sourcing shift.

Chiang Wan-an, mayor of Taipei, expressed that concern for the welfare of animals has become international consensus and is an important trend for the future of Taipei’s industrial development.

“The public supports animal-friendly farming and can use their food choices to show their support for companies that act on animal welfare,” he said, encouraging farmers to adopt animal-friendly forms of farming.

To support consumers seeking animal-friendly products Taipei City published an official map of retail and hospitality establishments in Taipei City which stock or source cage-free eggs. The map already features more than 200 establishments.

Taipei City used the announcement to highlight businesses promoting farmed animal welfare including farmers associations, traditional market vendors, Carrefour, PX-Mart and the Homemakers Union Consumers Co-op, while The Grand Hyatt Taipei, Toasteria and The Match Kitchen Lab served refreshments made with cage-free eggs.

Yu-Min Chen, deputy chief executive of EAST, praised Taipei City for taking a first step towards promoting the welfare of farmed animals.

“Changing the way we treat farmed animals is key to mending our broken food system; as the world grapples with zoonotic disease risk and food safety crises this task is more urgent than ever” she said.

Chen urged Taipei to source cage-free eggs in cafeterias servicing city employees – following the lead of Japan’s Cabinet Office – and implored other cities and counties to follow in the capital’s footsteps.

Media contact
Yu-Min Chen, Deputy Chief Executive
Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST)
Mobile: +886 (9) 1015 0908
Phone: +886 (2) 2236 9735