Consumer awareness of the ethical, environmental and health considerations involved with factory farming production methods is growing, and consumers are increasingly wanting to make informed choices on the animal-derived food products they purchase. Despite demand and growth in awareness, animal derived food products are still labelled with a confusing and incoherent abundance of poorly defined and unregulated labelling terms. A suite of such voluntary standards and third party certification schemes of varying regulation have resulted in the big producers redefining the terms to suit themselves, and have left consumers with a spectrum of products produced under a range of conditions. This ambiguity does not facilitate the ability of consumers to make informed product purchases.
How the consumer guide was produced
This online guide has been produced with support from all standards or certification schemes.
Humane Society International (HSI) developed a survey based on common conditions presented in standards for welfare-focused cattle, sheep, pig, and poultry product certification schemes. Also taking into consideration common public concerns for animal welfare in method of production for animal products, HSI developed a set of questions relating to standards for animal welfare certification schemes.
The survey was given to all major certifiers to complete. Any information not provided was obtained from information provided on certifiers' websites. Data was then developed into a form which clearly presented responses in a way so that they could easily be compared against each other.
So how does it work?
The idea is simple - choose an animal or product whose welfare you are interested in and compare standards against each other.
Latest News
Free Range Approach to Obeying Code (The Age April 15th, 2012)
ACCC begins Federal Court proceedings against Rosie's Free Range Eggs (The Australian, March 9, 2012)
RSPCA label 'dupes buyers' (Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 9th, 2012)
La Ionica Pays For Misleading Label (ABC Rural News)
Outrage over egg industry's definition of free-range. (Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 15, 2011)
'Free to roam' poultry producers taken to court. (ABC News, Sept. 9, 2011)
Click here to read more of the latest labelling news.
Submit your product and get involved
Producers or Certifiers
If you have an accreditation scheme which covers cattle, pigs, sheep or poultry, or if your product is accredited by a standard, and it is not available on the consumer guide please complete a survey so that the standards can be added. Alternatively, please contact us and we can send you a hard copy of the survey to complete.
Click here to complete an online survey
Consumers
If the product you buy is not in the consumer guide, write to ask them to complete the survey or provide us with their details.