By unlocking the export potential China offers the pig industry, not to mention the red meat sector as a whole, we could gain entry into a marketplace which comprises a fifth of the world’s population.Misleading labelling preventing high welfare pig sales
MISLEADING labelling is preventing consumers buying the high welfare pork products they want, the RSPCA is claiming. The animal welfare charity has launched a ‘Think Pig’ campaign to encourage consumers to buy ‘higher welfare’ pork products.
It has commissioned a survey by YouGov, which found that nearly two-thirds of shoppers (64 per cent) who bought pigmeat products in the past six months wanted to choose higher welfare products but were ‘not always able to because of a lack of clear labelling’.
RSPCA said the poll showed many shoppers were confused about labelling. Between 35 and 45 per cent did not know ‘how the pig was treated’ when shown packaging of various pork products.
The charity said that the majority of the 160 million pigs raised annually in Europe for meat were kept in conditions that ‘did not meet some of their most basic needs’. Many pigs were kept in ‘overcrowded barren environments with no bedding or material for rooting and only slatted floors to lie down on’, it said.
RSPCA said its campaign is intended to help consumers make an ‘educated choice’ when buying pork products by following the ‘Think Pig checklist’ while out shopping.
It asks people to only buy higher welfare pork products that display the Freedom Food logo - which means they have come from farms inspected to RSPCA welfare standards - or those labelled outdoor bred, outdoor reared, free range or organic.
Kate Parkes, a scientific officer from the RSPCA’s farm animals department, said: “Consumers have the power to really improve pigs’ lives. The more people choose higher welfare labelled pork, the more pigs will be reared to better welfare standards.”
Leigh Grant, Freedom Food’s chief executive, said the number of pigs reared to RSPCA welfare standards ‘dramatically increased’ by 26 per cent over the past two years as a direct result of consumer demand. “That’s 400,000 more pigs having a better life under Freedom Food,” he said.
The launch is part of Freedom Food’s ‘Farm Animal Week’ intended to raise awareness of farm animal welfare issues.
For more information about the Think Pig campaign, see: www.rspca.org.uk/thinkpig,
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Readers' comments (2)
nicky williams | 31 July 2010 2:12 pm
regarding the labeling of pork , surely this can easily br dealt with by buying pork ,and indeed all meat from your local butcher , insisting on british meat , local farmers / butchers etc all gain
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Anonymous | 4 August 2010 8:43 am
The problem is the FSA make small producers who are probably more likely to have non-intensively reared animals pay money they can't justify (or afford) for independant verification to say how the animals are reared or fed so how are the public suppose to choose.
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