Jamie Oliver 'Saves our Bacon'
Consumers are not making responsible animal welfare choices when buying pork, because they don’t understand the industry guidelines, according to the RSPCA.
Research from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shows that whilst 83% of people consider animal welfare to be important when buying pork, only 2% of them understand labelling terms such as ‘free range’, ‘outdoor bred’ and ‘outdoor reared’.
This means that people are unable to make informed choices when buying pork, and consequently only 60% buy higher welfare pork such as RSPCA Freedom Food, free range or organic.
Head of RSPCA farm animal science, Dr Julia Wrathall said: “Of the nine million pigs raised for meat in the UK each year, there is still a significant number that are living in unacceptable conditionsâ€.
This number is likely to reduce if more people bought higher welfare pork, as happened when celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall highlighted some of the welfare problems of chicken production last year.
Since Oliver and Fearnley-Whittingstall’s campaigns, 73% of consumers now buy chickens which are farmed in suitable living conditions, according to the RSPCA.
In addition to this, Waitrose supermarkets reported that sales for free range chicken have increased by 22%, and for organic chicken by 39% since the campaigns.
Likewise, Asda supermarkets now stocks 50% more free range chicken and 50% more organic chicken, following the increased awareness of chicken welfare.
Currently, however, there are no industry-wide agreed definitions for labelling of pork, which means that people cannot adopt the same ethical principles towards buying pork as they do for chicken.
Dr Wrathall said: “It is essential that all pig meat be clearly and consistently labelled to allow consumers to make an informed choice.
“Animal welfare is important to more than eight out of ten people when they’re out shopping, even in these hard economic times, and shoppers often seek out specifically-labelled products purely because they want to support certain farming practicesâ€.
Free range is widely understood as being an acceptable farming practice, and for chickens means that at least half of their life is spent in open-air runs with a certain amount of space for each chicken, and their food includes 70% of cereals.
However, as there is currently no legal definition of ‘free range’ pork, retailers can label the pork they sell as ‘outdoor bred’ or ‘free range’ without providing definitions.
This causes confusion, as ‘outdoor bred’ usually means that pigs have only spent the first three or four weeks of their lives in free range systems, and ‘outdoor reared’ means that pigs have full access to the outdoors for up to 10 weeks after birth, before they are moved indoors for rearing.
So while people may be buying ‘outdoor bred’ pork under the assumption that pigs have been free to roam around outside for a substantial amount of time, the farming regulations do not always necessarily meet industry standards.
Therefore, the RSPCA has launched its ‘Rooting for Pigs’ campaign to develop an agreed labelling scheme for pork between food retailers.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver told the RSPCA: “I think that the public needs clearer labelling when it comes to meat, particularly pork and bacon as the variation in pig welfare across Europe and the world is so diverse.
“How many people outside of the industry know the difference between outdoor-bred and outdoor-reared, for example? Not manyâ€.
The RSPCA will call for a intensive review of welfare issues within the EU and UK pig industry later this year, and Jamie Oliver will lead a debate on pig welfare in his new programme, ‘Jamie Saves our Bacon’, as part of Channel 4’s ‘Great British Food Fortnight’ towards the end of January.
By Kay Taylor