The Actual Type Of Eggs McDonald's Uses In 2026

You can't argue against the joys of a well-made fast food breakfast, and McDonald's always hits the spot. One thing to note about McDonald's breakfast is that in 2015, the company declared it would aim to use cage-free eggs (not to be confused with the myth that they're the same as free-range eggs). The fast food chain reached that goal in 2024, ahead of its intended schedule. So every McDonald's item you order that features eggs uses those from cage-free chickens.

"On a cage-free farm, hens are housed in an open environment that allows birds freedom to express their natural behaviors and includes enrichments such as perches, scratch areas and nests," McDonald's detailed in a 2024 announcement. The company also said that attending veterinarians were available to continue staff guidance. The necessary changes were made in conjunction with food corporation Cargill, which then adjusted how its downstream egg producers ran their operations.

"Cage-free" is somewhat of a loose term, however, since there's a lot of room for interpretation. While McDonald's announcement explicitly mentions enrichments for the birds, at its most basic, a cage-free hen basically isn't held in a tiny, restrictive cage. The amount of space it's actually given can still be limited; it can be a crowded growing environment, and they often spend their lives in windowless enclosures.

The cage-free egg promise isn't that easy to deliver on for giant fast food companies. McDonald's has recently achieved it, but not without challenges; it had to source 2 billion cage-free eggs to reestablish its supply in 2023. Cargill and its suppliers even visited Europe to learn more about cage-free poultry practices, and had to invest in new equipment and entire setups to make the transition. 

That's why other restaurant chains like Chick-Fil-A are still wrestling with the logistics of getting to that point. While Chick-Fil-A declared intent to use cage-free eggs by this year, it's still working out the kinks and hasn't been able to make the switch completely, thanks to egg supply complications due to bird flu. Some fast food chains like Taco Bell, Panera, and Starbucks made the commitment and achieved it. 

And even the average person buying cage-free eggs from stores like Costco isn't always guaranteed; while Costco does sell a good deal of cage-free eggs, not all of its eggs are cage-free certified. Once you understand the scale of these changes, you'll understand why it takes a long time. The truth is, it can be difficult for anyone to tell the difference in flavor just by eating them, as taste tests make it hard to discern. But humane treatment of animals is important to customers, which is why companies have been trying to make these types of gradual changes for years.