German supermarket Lidl has made the ground-breaking step of axing all stock made with eggs produced by battery hens and other stores have pledged to follow suit, although over a longer period of time.
The Dulcesol Group, set up by a family in Gandia (Valencia province), uses over 7,500 tonnes of liquid egg every year, laid by hens at the farm it owns in Terrateig in the Vall d'Albaida district, a few kilometres inland from the factory.
The Terrateig farm opened in the 1980s, and Dulcesol has confirmed that the hens in one of its four units are now free-range and get the run of a pen instead of being cooped up in cages.
This will shortly be the case for all the half a million hens on the farm.
Dulcesol keeps its own hens so it can guarantee the origin and quality of its egg supplies, since 90% of the eggs it uses comes from the farm in the Vall d'Albaida.
Environmental management and waste reduction plans included in Dulcesol's new policies include a certain percentage of hens' feed being made up of offcuts of cakes and bread from the factory, which is healthy for them as they provide adequate amounts of carbohydrates, sugar and fat.
Dulcesol has been trading for 60 years and is well-known for its 'pick-and-mix' snack-sized cakes, stored loose on shelves and sold by weight in supermarkets.
It also produces the brands Soles, Mi Menú, Pandorino, TopCao, Casado and Gloria, and in the last month has added the new label Horno Hermanos Juan – a range of frozen cakes aimed at the hotel and catering industry – plus Naturcrem, a brand of ready-to-eat creams and sweet sauces, all 100% organic, and Belplus, a line of organic staple foodstuffs.
In the last seven years or so, Dulcesol has invested over €150 million in product development projects, revamping premises, and buying top-of-the-range high-tech production equipment.
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