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Christmas
OneKind offers advice to those shopping for turkey or salmon this Christmas to ensure you are seeking out products which confirm to the highest animal welfare standards.
OneKind promotes an animal-friendly lifestyle. For some people, the expression “animal-friendly” excludes the consumption of animal-derived foods and products, while for others it means taking care to ensure that these are sourced from higher welfare systems.
This Christmas we are asking that meat eaters try a meat-free meal on Christmas Eve as way of balancing out their meat consumption. Not only will this help your own health and benefit the environment, but reducing the amount of meat you eat is also good for animal welfare.
For those still intending to eat animal products OneKind has put together a short guide, in partnership with Compassion in World Farming, to help shoppers choose products that meet higher standards of animal welfare. As it’s Christmas, we have focussed on the two animal products most commonly consumed at the festive meal – turkey and smoked salmon. Many people buying these over the next couple of weeks will be looking to the labels for guidance about the welfare standards provided for the animals. But what do they really tell us?
Farm assurance schemes all claim to ensure high standards of animal welfare, but they vary a great deal in their requirements of how animals are kept and cared for. By harnessing the tremendous power you wield via your shopping baskets, as a consumer you can not only benefit your own health, but help improve the welfare of farmed animals as well.
The guide ranks the various food assurance schemes from Bronze (acceptable) to Gold (highest standard of welfare) based on a number of animal welfare criteria ranging from husbandry to genetics and breeding.
Labels to look out for
ORGANIC standards offer significant welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice. The Soil Association organic standards performed particularly well in our survey, achieving the highest scores of all the schemes analysed for both turkeys and salmon.
For turkeys these standards mean free-range access, prohibition of beak trimming, provision of perches and the use of slower growing breeds. For farmed salmon, Soil Association organic standards mean low stocking densities, prohibition of mutilations and use of humane slaughter methods.
RSPCA FREEDOM FOOD standards for turkeys cover both indoor and free range systems. These standards offer a number of welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice, including lower stocking densities, provision of indoor enrichment and a restriction on transport duration to six hours. For salmon, these standards also offer a number of welfare benefits, including lower stocking densities, prohibition of mutilations and use of humane slaughter methods.
FREE RANGE standards are legally-defined for turkeys. Turkeys labelled as free range will often be certified by an assurance scheme such as RSPCA Freedom Food or Quality British Turkey.
Labels that scored lower
QUALITY BRITISH TURKEY / RED TRACTOR standards scored poorly in our survey. These standards offer little more than compliance with minimum legislative requirements. Unless accompanied by a free range or organic label, a turkey carrying this label is likely to have been reared intensively.
NO LOGO / FARM FRESH / COUNTRY FRESH - unless accompanied by a free range (for turkeys) or organic (for turkeys and salmon) label, turkey and farmed salmon that carry no farm assurance scheme logo, they are likely to have been reared in standard intensive conditions. Consumers may be confused by meaningless labels like ‘Farm Fresh’ or ‘Country Fresh’ - such terms are not legally defined and do not give any information about how the animal was reared.
The analysis
The schemes were analysed based on their performance on a range of criteria grouped into five sets as follows:
- Environment
- Husbandry
- Stockmanship, handling, transport & slaughter
- Genetics & breeding
- Auditing
Each set was scored out of 20, giving a total score out of 100 for each scheme. Where schemes offer significant welfare advantages compared with normal industry practice, this is recognised by ranking as follows:
Bronze
Score of 50% or higher. Offers an acceptable standard of welfare, with a number of welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice.
Silver
Score of 70% or higher. Offers a good standard of welfare, with many welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice, but leaves certain important issues unresolved.
The schemes are ranked twice: Firstly on the environment criteria only, to give a ranking for the system. This ranking is a measure of the
welfare potential of the environment provided for the animals. Secondly, a ranking is given for the scheme as a whole. This is a measure of
performance across all areas of the standards. In order to achieve a particular ranking for the scheme, the same ranking or higher must be awarded for the system. Therefore, whilst each of the five sets of criteria is given equal weighting in the scoring, the importance of the environment provided for the animals in determining the welfare potential of the scheme is recognised in the final ranking of the system.
Results for turkeys
The Soil Association achieved the highest score with a silver scheme classification. This scheme offers many welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice, including much lower stocking densities, provision of perches, free-range access, smaller flock sizes, prohibition of beak trimming, a requirement for on-farm monitoring of health and welfare, a restriction on transport duration to eight hours, a requirement to use slower-growing breeds (otherwise a minimum slaughter age of 140 days applies to discourage the use of fast-growing breeds) and prohibition of feed restriction of breeding birds.
The RSPCA scheme achieved the next highest score with a bronze scheme classification. The RSPCA standards offer a number of welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice, including lower stocking densities, provision of indoor enrichment, a requirement for on-farm monitoring of health and welfare including targets for key welfare indicators, a requirement for training of stockpeople and a restriction on transport duration to six hours.
The Scottish Organic Producers Association also achieved a bronze scheme classification. This scheme offers a number of welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice, including lower stocking densities, provision of indoor enrichment, free-range access, smaller flock sizes, prohibition of beak trimming, a restriction on transport duration to eight hours and a requirement to use slower-growing breeds (otherwise a minimum slaughter age of 140 days applies).
The Quality British Turkey scheme scored poorly but did achieve a bronze rating on their free-range standards. Compared with standard industry practice, the free range standards offer a number of welfare benefits, including lower stocking densities, free range access and a requirement for training of stockpeople. The indoor standards also include a requirement for training of stockpeople but otherwise they generally offer little more than compliance with minimum legislative requirements.
Results for farmed salmon
The Soil Association scheme achieved the highest score with a silver scheme classification. This scheme offers many welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice, including much lower stocking densities, prohibition of mutilations, a requirement to anaesthetise or slaughter broodstock prior to stripping of eggs or sperm, a limit of 72 hours on the length of time fish may be starved prior to slaughter, a requirement for a sea lice monitoring strategy, stringent standards for handling fish, a requirement for training of stockpeople, stringent limits on transport duration, prohibition of inhumane slaughter methods and prohibition of triploid fish (sterile fish that suffer from a higher incidence of health and welfare problems).
The RSPCA scheme achieved the next highest score, with a bronze scheme classification. This scheme offers a number of welfare benefits compared with standard industry practice, including lower stocking densities, prohibition of mutilations, a limit of 72 hours on the length of time fish may be starved prior to slaughter, a requirement for on-farm monitoring of health and welfare including targets for key welfare indicators and a sea lice monitoring strategy, stringent standards for handling fish, a requirement for training of stockpeople and prohibition of inhumane slaughter methods.
The Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Aquaculture standards did not achieve a bronze rating. These standards form the minimum requirements for membership of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation. These standards offer a few welfare benefits above compliance with minimum legislative requirements, including a requirement for on-farm monitoring of health and welfare and a sea lice monitoring strategy, a requirement for training of stockpeople and prohibition of inhumane slaughter methods.