Taco Bell Will Be Using Only Cage-Free Eggs by 2016

Times are changing at Taco Bell.

The company, which recently rescued its very first restaurant from the wrecking ball by relocating it from Downey, California, to their corporate headquarters in Irvine, is also changing in a time of growing uncertainty for fast-food chains.

The Mexican food giant is moving away from the industrial farming image often associated with brands that go through 2 billion eggs every year to crush breakfast competitors.

Earlier this week, the company announced that it would be moving towards exclusively cage-free eggs. With 130 million eggs used at 6,000 US locations every year, Taco Bell is hardly a small player in the breakfast game.

"We are a brand that has our finger on the pulse of not only what appeals to our customers' tastes, but also the issues they care most about, and they tell us they want food that's simple and easy to understand," Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol explained in a press release. "Implementing this change at a record pace underscores that we are always listening and responding to our customers while doing what is right for our business."

"Delivering a sustainable and safe egg supply to Taco Bell restaurants nationwide in one year is possible due to the brand's large yet flexible infrastructure, and years of close collaboration with our partners," Liz Matthews, Chief Food Innovation Officer of Taco Bell, added.

Despite facing criticism for being late to the "cage-free" game, Taco Bell has pledged to compensate by putting it into effect before any of its competitors.

Josh Balk, Senior Food Policy Director of The Humane Society of the United States, praised Taco Bell in the very same Taco Bell press release. "Taco Bell has catapulted itself ahead of other major restaurant chains," Balk said. "Switching to 100 percent cage-free eggs by the end of 2016 is a tremendous commitment that will quickly improve the lives of countless animals and further cement the future of egg production as being one without cages."

MUNCHIES reached out to Taco Bell for further commentary and the company acknowledged that it was responding to a growing consumer demand for higher quality ingredients in their food.

"This is important to us, because this change matters to our customers," public relations representative Alec Boyle said, adding that, "We've been quietly working with our exclusive supplier Michael Foods to manage this transition for some time now, and we wanted to do it in record-breaking time. But it was imperative that we do it right and make a promise we could commit to."

For breakfast burrito enthusiasts wondering which of their favourite creations will be affected, Boyle told MUNCHIES that, for the time being, their commitment addresses "the whole eggs used in our breakfast menu like the AM Crunchwrap, Biscuit Taco, and breakfast burrito," though he also pointed towards further possibilities. "We will continue to consider opportunities that may enable us to extend this commitment to other forms of eggs, such as liquid eggs used in other parts of our menu."