At its Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards yesterday, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) recognised food businesses excelling in animal welfare and sustainability. Recipients include Italian pasta giant Barilla, fast-food chain McDonalds UK & Ireland, and cage-free egg producer Happy Eggs. Scroll through the photo gallery for more…
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At its Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards yesterday, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) recognised food businesses excelling in animal welfare and sustainability. Recipients include Italian pasta giant Barilla, fast-food chain McDonalds UK & Ireland, and cage-free egg producer Happy Eggs. Scroll through the photo gallery for more…
GettyImages/Dreamer Company
Italian manufacturer Barilla has walked away with a Special Recognition Award under the Planet Friendly Award banner at this year’s Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards.
The Planet Friendly Award recognises companies committing to ‘meaningful meat’ reduction targets – which also includes dairy, fish, or eggs – in their supply.
In Barilla’s case, the focus is on eggs. In 2012, the company pledged to go cage free on all shell eggs and egg ingredients. Barilla has also implemented cage free eggs across its entire global business, meaning that more than two-million hens are cage-free within its supply chain per year.
Production reformulation is another area Barilla has committed to animal welfare and sustainability. The company has progressively decreased the use of egg as an ingredient, leading to a reduction of 8% from 2016 to 2020. A total of 350,000 laying hens, therefore, have been taken out of its global supply chain.
Further, three new biscuit ranges across two brands have launched that contain either no eggs or a lower content of eggs. In the latter, a higher percentage of legumes was used as a replacement.
In the US, the business has rolled out a whole pasta range that contains 100% plant-based protein.
“Whilst the transition to higher welfare production systems is imperative, growing scientific evidence calls for a significant reduction in the overall production and consumption of animal protein,” said CIWF’s Director of Food Business Dr Tracey Jones.
“Barilla’s work to actively reduce egg consumption with the resulting fall in emissions is an excellent example of how this balance can be successfully achieved and deserves to be recognised.”
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Another Special Recognition Award was handed out at the virtual event – this time to Danone, within the Innovation category.
Specifically, the award was granted for Danone’s global assessment tool for dairy cow welfare. The digital tool, which can be used on any tablet, aims to help farmers phase out inappropriate practices, including tail docking and dehorning.
As CIWF explained, the tool creates a SMART Action plant for improvement based on key inputs and welfare outcome measures, such as early colostrum feeding to calves, lameness, mastitis, and body condition score, following a two-hour assessment conducted by the farmer.
By the end of 2020, more than 400,000 dairy cows and 350,000 replacement young stock has been assessed using the tool. The dairy giant has also shared the tool with other businesses and partners around the world.
“Danone’s new digital tool provides direct on-farm action plans, tailored to each farm’s specific needs which are compared against a universal benchmark,” explained CIWF’s Dr Jones. “It has the potential to monitor and improve welfare on a global scale thanks to Danone’s willingness to share it with other companies.”
Image source: GettyImages/Diane Kuhl
2021 marks the first year CIWF has awarded its Good Egg Award to a Chinese egg producer. Happy Egg received the gong for selling only cage-free eggs on the internet.
The company leases the higher welfare and environmentally friendly Dutch ‘Rondeel’ barn system – the only one in China – and have built an additional aviary barn system which is set to improve the lives of more than 240,000 hens each year.
Happy Eggs has also demonstrated commitment to educate the public about the benefits of higher welfare for animals and humans alike and is building a small museum and café linking animal welfare to the local tourist industry.
Another company also won a Good Egg Award this year this year. Italian producer of healthy bakery treats, Galbusera, successfully completed its transition to cage-free eggs across all its brands in 2020.
The award was received for extending its cage-free commitment to exclude combination systems within the next five years.
Image source: GettyImages/Lilechka75
McDonald’s UK & Ireland took home the award for the corporate category of the Sustainable Food & Farming Award.
Specifically, the fast food chain won for its Regenerative Beef Project, which aims to demonstrate the benefits (environmental, ethical and economic) for an Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing approach, with the ultimate goal of developing a roadmap towards a commercial regenerative beef farming system.
As CIWF explained, the AMP system uses robust easy calving breeds that are fit for the environment and able to forage outdoors year-round. These cows are kept in large, stable groups which aims to promote good social networks.
They are also regularly in contact with the stockmen, which means they are ‘happier, calmer and easier to handle’. Pasture is rotated regularly, allows for the availability of fresh, nutrient-rich plants.
“We are incredibly proud to be working on this ground-breaking project, alongside our brilliant partners FAI Farms, and the impact it could have on the UK beef industry,” said Harriet Wilson, Agriculture and Sustainable Sourcing Manager at McDonald’s UK & Ireland.
“The project presents a real opportunity to explore the ways in which we can futureproof the industry and drive more resilient production, to ensure our future beef supply contributes to a sustainable food system where people, local communities, animals and the planet can thrive.”
Image source: GettyImages/yaoinlove
Hilton Seafood UK took home a Special Recognition Award within the Best Innovation Award category.
The company was recognised for being the first to commercially trial and adopt an electric stunner for warm water whiteleg shrimp, or King Prawns, making for a more humane method of slaughter than the usual thermal stunning by immersion in ice slurry.
In addition to the welfare benefits it provides, which includes less handling and crowding of the prawns, it provides a more effective and consistent stun, which reduces labour during harvest, while not being detrimental to product quality, noted CIWF. “The system, which has been approved and rolled out across the Hilton/Tesco supply chain, will benefit more than 100 million animals in its first year.”
CIWF’s Dr Jones noted: “The sentience of crustaceans is often overlooked and in the absence of any legislation or standards, this electric stunner for shrimp, pioneered by Hilton Seafood, has the potential to benefit billions of animals if adopted more widely across the industry.”
Other awards winners include LDC group’s Nature d’Eleveurs, who took home a Good Rabbit Commendation for its commitment to higher welfare, cage-free rabbit production, and Italian healthy bakery treats brand Galbusera, who received a Good Egg Award this year for extending its cage-free commitment to exclude combination systems within the next five years.
Image source: GettyImages/robynmac
