Kroger to Debut 1st-Ever Carbon Neutral Eggs
The Kroger Co. is bringing the world's first carbon neutral eggs to retail shelves in the United States.
The grocery chain has teamed with Kipster Farms, an egg production company founded in The Netherlands, to bring the eggs to stores and e-commerce in late 2022 under Kroger's multi-billion dollar Simple Truth brand.
"Simple Truth is excited to partner with the innovative team at Kipster to further elevate our brand's purpose to be a force for good," said Brad Studer, senior director, Our Brands for Kroger. "These Simple Truth and Kipster eggs will be produced in a closed-loop system that aligns with the highest health and welfare standards for people and animals. These sustainable, zero-waste eggs reflect yet another milestone in Kroger's Zero Hunger | Zero Waste mission to help create communities free of hunger and waste."
MPS Egg Farms, a long-standing Kroger partner based in North Manchester, Ind., recently started construction on the first production facility using the proprietary Kipster system.
The Kipster system:
- Uses the highest standards of animal welfare, providing a cage-free, natural-like wooded environment with plenty of variety, daylight and outdoor scurrying space.
- Uses chicken feed made from surplus food from bakeries and other food producers, reducing climate impacts versus standard feed.
- Minimizes fine particle emissions, resulting in better air quality for farmers and animals.
- Is powered by rooftop solar panels.
Kipster aims to help create a food system in which animals do not pollute but rather help clean up byproducts of food production. In this way, chickens upcycle food waste into eggs, meat and fertile manure. Kipster is the only poultry farmer in the world to farm with such a high level of circularity.
The new Simple Truth eggs will further expand the brand's line of natural and more sustainable choices as part of Kroger's Our Brands product portfolio.
The innovative partnership aims to advance Kroger's environmental, social and governance strategy – Thriving Together – which articulates the company's commitment to driving positive changes for people, the planet and natural systems. It also reflects the latest progress on the company's phased transition to cage-free eggs.
Serving 60 million households annually nationwide through a digital shopping experience, and almost 2,800 retail food stores under a variety of banner names, Cincinnati-based Kroger is No. 3 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
