[January 21, 2013]

Au Bon Pain Continues Shift to Eggs from Cage-Free Hens; Commits to 100% Gestation Crate-Free for Pork

Au Bon Pain (ABP (News - Alert)), America's café bakery and a leader in the fast casual restaurant category, announced today further developments in its continuing commitments to animal welfare and humane treatment.

First, the company announced that it will become fully cage-free in the supply of eggs for its menu by 2017. ABP launched cage free eggs in September 2009. Today, 25% of ABP's egg sandwich purchases already are cage free.

Secnd, the company announced its commitment to eliminate from its U.S. supply chain pork from animals bred using gestation crates. Specifically, the company says that pork it uses will become 100% gestation crate-free also by 2017.

According to Au Bon Pain's CEO, Sue Morelli, "Animal welfare and humane treatment have been important values to Au Bon Pain and our customers. Our announcements today reflect those values and continue our commitment. Au Bon Pain also is requiring suppliers to outline timelines and steps to achieve these goals."

Morelli noted that ABP has for years worked with suppliers with excellent track records in the humane treatment of animals. For example, ABP buys all of its pork sausage from Niman Ranch which adheres to a 100% gestation crate-free policy.

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