www.rspca.org.uk
OUR WORK BEHIND THE SCENES ANNUAL REVIEW 2014 Two decades of Freedom Food
2014 was a landmark for our unique farm
assurance and food-labelling scheme Freedom
Food, which celebrated its 20th anniversary.
When launched, Freedom Food had just a
handful of members and there were RSPCA
welfare standards for laying hens and pigs.
Twenty years on Freedom Food has more than
3,500 members, 12 sets of RSPCA welfare standards
for different farmed animals, and labelled
products in all major UK supermarkets. In the last
10 years alone, more than half a billion terrestrial
farm animals have benefitted from the scheme.
Anything carrying the Freedom Food mark gives consumers the
assurance that the animals that produced it have been inspected
to RSPCA higher welfare standards. The scheme helps producers
of all sizes to produce good food profitably, while safeguarding
their animals' welfare.
In 2014 Freedom Food:
❙ Saw the first Freedom Food-labelled farmed trout products
launched in Sainsbury's.
❙ Announced that 70 percent of Scottish salmon is now farmed
under the Freedom Food scheme.
❙ Held the first Compassionate Cook competition, supported by
Fairtrade. The winning recipe was 'Chilli Con Sausage'.
❙ Released a Freedom Food square eggs April Fools press release,
resulting in wide media coverage and an appearance on ITV's
Daybreak morning TV programme.
❙ Launched a new online suppliers' directory.
Working for farm animals
Our work for farm animals aims to improve
farm animals' welfare from birth to death.
The law alone does not always ensure they have
a good quality of life and are transported and
slaughtered humanely. We want as many UK
farm animals as possible to be reared to our own
higher welfare standards.
In 2014 our work for farm animals included:
❙ Investigating the humaneness and practicalities of a new
US system for killing meat chickens using low atmospheric
pressure, rather than gas. The system replicates ascent to
high altitude and could offer a very humane system for killing
chickens, although more research is needed to show the
impact on chicken welfare.
❙ Publishing the first ever RSPCA welfare standards for farmed
rainbow trout covering hatching, rearing, transport and
slaughter, and new pig welfare standards giving more guidance
on indoor free farrowing systems.
❙ Presenting to an international conference on using our
on-farm welfare assessments, which were developed as
part of the AssureWel project and aim to encourage
continuous welfare improvements. Visit: www.assurewel.org
❙ Assessing and identifying practical ways to provide
commercially-reared ducks with full body access to
open water.
❙ Advising and making recommendations to governments and
governmental advisory bodies urging mandatory use of CCTV
in all abattoirs to improve monitoring and enforcement of
animal welfare rules.
PAGE SIXTEEN
Andrew Forsyth x2/RSPCA Photolibrary