The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated operates a large-scale restaurant chain whose core menu is built on animal products, including beef, poultry, pork, dairy, and eggs. Its business model is fundamentally dependent on the commercial exploitation of animals for food.

The company’s primary animal welfare commitment references the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) 5-Step™ standards for chickens raised for meat. However, it does not report on the quantity of antibiotics used in its supply chain for any key animal proteins, a significant transparency gap given the public health risks of antibiotic overuse in industrial animal agriculture. While the company has made a net-zero emissions commitment for 2050, this does not address the core animal exploitation inherent in its operations.

Cruelty Free Investors flags the company under its animal exploitation criteria. The absence of a comprehensive, publicly verifiable animal welfare policy covering all sourced species and a lack of supply chain transparency regarding antibiotic use are consistent with an exclusion under this category.