No Antibiotics Ever!(20+)

Cage Free Eggs

We aim to source 100% of all Member’s Mark shell egg products in Sam’s Club U.S. to be from cage-free laying hens.6

Cage Free
In support of our goal, we are pursuing the following animal welfare priorities for laying hens:

1. We will require that 100% of our shell egg supply meets the standards outlined by the United Egg Producers (UEP) Animal Husbandry Guidelines or an equivalent standard. This means that regardless of the production system, every egg we offer is certified fully compliant. This includes, but is not limited to:
1. Only non-feed withdrawal molt methods permitted. This means our hens are never subjected to the stress of feed withdrawal during molting to ensure their health and comfort.
2. Adherence to guidelines on beak trimming and euthanasia
3. Requirements for cage-free systems, as applicable, including:An enriched environment including nests and litter
   Minimum space of 1.0 square foot per hen
   
4. Annual third-party audit to be conducted by USDA/AMS or Validus (as approved by UEP)
2. We are challenging our suppliers to use selective breeding, innovation, and best management practices to improve the health and welfare of laying hens. This includes improving mortality rates and reducing painful procedures like beak trimming. We track continuous improvement against these metrics as part of our Sustainability Index.

6Egg products only include shell egg products. Subject to regulatory changes and based on available supply, affordability, and member demand.

Animal Welfare & Antibiotic Use.

Our goal is for 100% of Member’s Mark animal proteins be sourced to meet our Animal Welfare and Antibiotic Use guidelines by 2025.1

We’re asking Sam’s Club® U.S. fresh and frozen meat, deli, dairy, and egg suppliers to:

1. Report to authorities and take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action in any cases of animal abuse.
2. Adopt and implement the principles of the Five Freedoms in their own operations and industry producer programs and publish a corporate policy on animal welfare.
3. Find and implement solutions to address animal welfare concerns including, but not limited to:

• Housing systems that lack sufficient space, enrichment or socialization (for example, sow gestation creates, hen battery cages, and veal crates).
• Painful procedures where avoidable or without pain management (for example, tail docking, de-horning and castration).
• Euthanasia or slaughter without rendering an animal insensible to pain.2

1. Promote transparency by providing an animal welfare report to Walmart® and publicly reporting against their animal welfare policy on an annual basis.

Antibiotic Use – Poultry Specific
We aspire to only offer poultry products raised with No Antibiotics Ever.3

Because of our commitment to animal welfare, if animals become ill, we want them to be treated and that may involve receiving antibiotics. We do not use the birds in any of our Member’s Mark products.

Antibiotic Use – Excluding Poultry
We recognize that antibiotics are one of the many tools used to keep animals healthy and that they should be used responsibly to preserve their effectiveness in humans and veterinary medicine. We believe in disease prevention strategies, appropriate veterinary oversight, accurate record-keeping, and careful review before antibiotic use. We also believe that antibiotics should only be used for medical purposes and not for growth promotion.

What we are asking our suppliers to do:

1. Comply with all federal, state, and local regulatory requirements as well as our food safety standards.
2. Adopt and implement the American Veterinary Medical Association Judicious Use Principles of Antimicrobials4 in their own operations and in their industry producer programs, including but not limited to:
1. Implement disease prevention strategies.
2. Have appropriate veterinary oversight.
3. Maintain accurate records of treatments and outcomes.
4. Careful review before antibiotics are used.
5. Limit medical antibiotic use to ill or at-risk animals.
3. Adopt and implement U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Voluntary Guidance for Industry #2095 (Judicious Use of Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs) in their own operations and in their industry producer programs, including elimination of growth promotion uses of medically important antibiotics.
4. Eliminate growth promotion uses of all antibiotics.
5. Promote transparency by creating an antibiotics management report and publicly reporting antibiotic use on an annual basis.

1Including USDA/FDA regulated products for human consumption only, excluding pet food products.

2Except where prohibited by dietary restriction.

3Excludes pet food products.

4AVMA Judicious Therapeutic Use of Antimicrobials. https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Pages/Judicious-Therapeutic-Use-of-Antimicrobials.aspx

5FDA Guidance for Industry #209: The Judicious Use of Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs in Food-Producing Animals.

https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/cvm-gfi-209-judicious-use-medically-important-antimicrobial-drugs-food-producing-animals

Accessed May 6, 2015.