A New Pecking Order
Ria Popat
Each year, Chronos, in collaboration with World Animal Protection, takes on the research, analysis and reporting for The Pecking Order (TPO) - a benchmark assessing how major fast food and other food service companies in Europe treat chickens raised for meat, including household names like KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King.
The TPO report is published World Animal Protection, who along with their partners have taken a leadership role in monitoring progress in this area and holding the European restaurant sector to account.
Chicken welfare is not just an issue for those seeking to prevent animal suffering, it's a critical business issue that can risk supply chain stability, brand reputation, and operational efficiency.
A history of The Pecking Order
The Pecking Order started in 2019, launched by World Animal Protection to drive better disclosure amongst food service companies of their efforts to improve broiler chicken welfare. Since the start, Chronos has undertaken the assessment of target companies and analysis of the results, working closely with World Animal Protection and partners.
The current benchmark, based on the European Chicken Commitment requirements, focuses on six key welfare issues for achieving higher welfare standards:
Reduced stocking density;
Use of breeds with improved welfare potential;
Provision of environmental enrichment;
Elimination of broiler cages/multi-tier systems;
Humane slaughter practices (e.g. controlled atmospheric stunning with inert gas or multi-phase systems, or effective electrical stunning without live inversion);
Implementation of third-party auditing.
The Pecking Order in 2025
In the seventh iteration of this benchmark this year, The Pecking Order covers 81 assessments of company operations across seven European markets: the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and Sweden. As well as the fast food chains already mentioned, companies assessed include Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza and Joe and the Juice.
The overall average score across all companies is 27%, up from 23% in 2024, and the results show that companies are both strengthening their broiler welfare policies and starting to share more data on how their commitments are being put into practice.
Regarding policies, 60 companies (74%) now have a broiler chicken welfare policy, compared to 53 out of 75 companies (71%) in 2024, and 45 (65%) in 2023. While 37 companies have either committed to the European Chicken Commitment outright or published a policy fully aligned with its criteria.
Companies’ reporting on performance against their policies is also improving, although from a low base. In 2025, 31 companies (38%) report at least some performance impact data – for example on stocking density, enrichment, cage use, humane slaughter, auditing or breed transition – up from 25% in 2024 and 19% in 2023.
Overall, progress on broiler chicken welfare commitments lags the progress we have seen on commitments made over a similar time period for cage-free eggs.
One reason is that the European Chicken Commitment is more complex to implement, requiring coordinated changes across housing, management and slaughter practices. Unlike cage-free eggs, the European Chicken Commitment was created as a new, NGO-led concept rather than scaling up an existing mainstream production model, so companies, producers and suppliers have had to work together in depth to develop compliant supply chains. On top of this, higher-welfare broiler production tends to carry a greater price premium than cage-free eggs, which can make businesses more cautious about moving at speed. Nonetheless, it is encouraging to see a growing group of companies beginning to translate their chicken welfare commitments into practical steps on the ground, demonstrating that these higher standards are achievable.
As The Pecking Order continues to act as both an engagement tool and a public benchmark, it plays an important role in showing which companies are turning commitments into measurable action for broiler chickens, and which are still falling behind.
It has become a valuable tool for consumers, animal welfare advocates and other stakeholders to understand the extent to which companies are consistent in implementing their corporate-level commitments across relevant European markets.
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For more on our animal welfare work contact Chronos’ Head of Food and Health Nathan Williams
