SOURCING
When it comes to sourcing, our aim is to promote sustainable work practices that protect and preserve the environment, deliver the higher welfare, and drive efficiency and transparency to transform our supply chains.
ANIMAL WELFARE: MOST TRUSTED CHICKEN IN QSR
You won't be surprised to learn that at KFC, great tasting chicken matters. Our iconic fried chicken is freshly prepared and hand-breaded by our trained cooks in restaurant every single day, using the type of ingredients you'd find in your kitchen at home.
It starts with sourcing birds that have had a good life. Our chickens, like all other animals, deserve to be treated well — it’s as simple as that. Therefore, chicken welfare is a priority for our business.
We are committed to working with our farms and suppliers across all proteins to monitor and improve the health and welfare of farmed animals to address environmental and ethical issues in our supply chain.
GOALS
• Deliver independent annual chicken welfare reports
• By 2026: Delivering in restaurant against the KFC Better Chicken Commitment Roadmap
• Eggs: Maintain 100% cage free eggs as an ingredient across core and limited time offer menu items
APPROACH
Chicken is who we are – it’s in the name – and we’re proud to have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment goals to improve chicken welfare. This is why we work closely with our suppliers and partners to develop and monitor key welfare outcomes of the birds on our supply chain.
All of our farms, across all proteins, are required to meet the standards set out in our KFC Western Europe Animal Welfare programme.
KFC will only work with suppliers committed to recognised humane practices, good animal husbandry and Animal Welfare standards.
KFC therefore supports the globally recognised Five Freedoms of animal welfare:
1. Freedom from hunger or thirst by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2. Freedom from discomfort by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind.
5. Freedom from fear and distress by ensuring conditions and treatment, which avoids mental stress.
KFC UK & Ireland support the Responsible use of Medicines and Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) approach and ensuring that our suppliers use medicines and antibiotics responsibly. We're committed to continuous reduction in total antibiotics use - This will be a key focus within supplier reviews over the coming years.
PROGRESS
We use fresh wholesome chicken across all our restaurants.100% of our chicken on the bone comes from British Red Tractor farms. And when it comes to eggs, 100% of all ingredient and processed egg used within KFC UK & Ireland products is sourced from cage free systems. We don't use any fresh shell eggs.
Each year, we independently commission our chicken welfare progress report to ensure we are fully transparent, open and honest about how our chicken is produced. And we’re proud to be working with leading animal welfare organisation FAI Farms to continually add rigour, integrity, and accountability around the farm to fork cycle. Click to view our previous reports: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.
We're always looking for ways to raise standards on improving and championing chicken welfare. That's why we've developed close partnerships with experts, including Compassion In World Farming (CIWF), FAI Farms and other organisations. We’ve developed our own system to bring transparency to our supply chain, so we can see what’s going on in any farm at any time.
As part of our commitment to higher welfare, KFC UK & Ireland have signed up to the goals of the Better Chicken Commitment. This is an essential framework for tracking and improving welfare standards. We have taken some important steps towards the BCC goals, including reducing stocking density of all our UK purchased chickens, but there is more for the whole UK chicken market to do. This is why we are continuing to work in partnership with Compassion in World Farming on these goals, so that together we can see happier, healthier chickens across UK farms.
REDUCING & RESTORING BIODIVERSITY LOSS
Our planet is unique and none of us could exist without it, that's why we need to play our part in protecting and restoring nature. We are committed to combatting climate change and biodiversity loss, through environmentally and socially responsible global supply chains.
GOALS
• By 2023: Maintain 100% of wood, paper and pulp customer-facing packaging certified by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
• By 2025: Purchase fairly traded tea, coffee, sugar and cocoa (Rainforest Alliance or FairTrade or equivalent)
• By 2025: End natural forest loss from soy in our supply chain
APPROACH
As part of our environmental commitments, KFC UK & Ireland have signed up to the UK Soy Manifesto.
For our UK and Ireland restaurants we aim to source 100% of the Soy in our supply chain from physically traceable, sustainable and deforestation and conversion-free sources by 2025. Click here to view our KFC UK and Ireland Soy Policy.
Like soy, palm oil has been strongly linked to deforestation and KFC Western Europe does not permit the use of palm oil or palm oil blends for frying for KFC UK&I. Where palm oil is used as an ingredient, we make sure it is limited (needed for technical reasons) and RSPO certified.
OUR PROGRESS
We want to be as transparent as possible on our journey to 100% deforestation and conversion free soy in our supply chain, therefore we will be reporting on our progress on an annual basis. To date, we have conducted mapping of our poultry supply chain and we have an ambition to expand this into our other supply chains in the coming years. Click here to view our current and previous reports: 2023 Soy Report, 2022 Soy Report.
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