With over 1,850 restaurants in North America, Central America, South America, and Asia and more than 175,000 staffers across the globe, it comes as no surprise that Florida-based Darden Restaurants is the world’s largest full-service restaurant group.

The company’s well-known casual dining restaurant brands include Olive Garden, The Capital Grille, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, Yard House, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, and Eddie V’s, several of which are among Americans’ favorites.

Darden’s restaurant locations in the United States already use only cage-free eggs, considered less cruel to egg-laying hens and safer for consumers, with a lower risk of salmonella contamination.

Darden’s cage-free commitment, however, did not extend to overseas franchisees operating in Asian markets such as Malaysia and the Philippines. The Lever Foundation team recognized an opportunity to expand Darden’s policy and engaged with the company to assist in overcoming supply challenges. As a result of Lever’s engagement, Darden updated its animal welfare policy to include a commitment from its international franchisees to source only cage-free eggs by 2027.

Darden’s commitment to end the use of caged eggs is set to represent a major improvement in the lives of egg-laying hens that will soon stretch their wings to express natural behavior.

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