This year, 34 awards were given across the UK, EU, China and the US. Compassion said that they recognise projects that will benefit the lives of 28 million animals each year.
This takes the overall impact of CIWF’s Food Business programme to date, through awards, partnership projects and corporate pledges, to over 2 billion animals annually.
Dr Tracey Jones, Director of Food Business said: “Despite these challenging times it has been truly heartening to see companies move forwards with their commitments to animal welfare. Although many businesses have been closed, and for some these are incredibly uncertain times, it is encouraging to see that farm animal welfare is still central to business plans for our future food.
“Farm animal welfare is not just for the good times or the niche products - every animal reared for food deserves a good quality of life. As we emerge from this pandemic there is much to learn, none more so than how we balance the relationship between the food we eat, its impact on the environment, natural resources and rich biodiversity of our fragile planet, and the health and livelihoods of its people. Never in our history has it been so urgent to build a more resilient sustainable food system with animal welfare at its heart. Our corporate partners are on that journey and we will continue to work with them to drive this much needed change.”
Scroll through the gallery to see what businesses have been commended for their efforts to improve the welfare of farm animals in their supply chains.
Pic: iStock/Droits d'auteur taxzi
This year, 34 awards were given across the UK, EU, China and the US. Compassion said that they recognise projects that will benefit the lives of 28 million animals each year.
This takes the overall impact of Compassion’s Food Business programme to date, through awards, partnership projects and corporate pledges, to over 2 billion animals annually.
Dr Tracey Jones, Director of Food Business said: “Despite these challenging times it has been truly heartening to see companies move forwards with their commitments to animal welfare. Although many businesses have been closed, and for some these are incredibly uncertain times, it is encouraging to see that farm animal welfare is still central to business plans for our future food.
“Farm animal welfare is not just for the good times or the niche products - every animal reared for food deserves a good quality of life. As we emerge from this pandemic there is much to learn, none more so than how we balance the relationship between the food we eat, its impact on the environment, natural resources and rich biodiversity of our fragile planet, and the health and livelihoods of its people. Never in our history has it been so urgent to build a more resilient sustainable food system with animal welfare at its heart. Our corporate partners are on that journey and we will continue to work with them to drive this much needed change.”
Scroll through the gallery to see what businesses have been commended for their efforts to improve the welfare of farm animals in their supply chains.
Pic: iStock/Droits d'auteur taxzi
Noble Foods, the UK’s biggest egg producer was awarded a Good Egg Award for its commitment to be 100% cage free by 2025.
Working collaboratively with the British Egg Industry Council, Compassion and Tesco, Noble Foods helped develop a new higher welfare barn standard for UK egg production which was introduced in November 2019.
In the past year, Noble has worked alongside their equipment manufacturer, Vencomatic, to convert one of their large enriched colony caged units to the new higher welfare aviary barn system, coupled with an identical pullet rearing unit.
Jean-Paul Michalski, company farms director at Noble Foods, commented: “Animal welfare is of the utmost importance to Noble Foods and we’re extremely proud of the CIWF Good Egg Award. Our aim is to be an example and deliver standards of care that significantly push the boundaries to set new industry goals for responsible farming.”
Frozen ready meal maker COOK was awarded two new accolades: the Good Turkey Award and a Good Dairy Commendation.
These accolades build on COOK's past CIWF recognition - including the Good Egg Award (2011), Good Pig Award (2016) and Good Chicken Award (2017).
COOK believes it is the 'responsible and right thing to do' to engage more closely with its direct suppliers and farmers to enhance and encourage good practice on farms. The business looks for ways to improve the welfare of farm animals involved in its supply chain, and actively promotes their welfare credentials. The company said it sees the positive impact of awards such as CIWF reflected in 'additional sales'.
Tom Mayer, head of supply Chain at COOK explained: “We are absolutely thrilled to receive a Good Turkey Award. A great deal of work went on behind the scenes at COOK to get us here in time for Christmas 2020, and this award marks an important step in our journey as a responsible food business.”
Mondelez International was recognised for the efforts it is making to improve the welfare of dairy cattle.
The company received a Good Dairy Commendation in 2013 for the work its Philadelphia brand did to boost dairy cow welfare across five European countries. In 2020, Mondelez received another Good Dairy Commendation for expanding this higher welfare policy across a further 15 countries. The group's efforts increased the number of dairy cows benefitting from their work by a further 66%.
This achievement was pursued in partnership with their supplier and by collaborating with the German Dairy Standard, QM-Milk.
“We recognise the link between animal welfare and the health of animals raised for food. To secure high-quality milk and dairy products, we have always put good farm practices and animal welfare at the heart of our continuously improving process," Valerie Thill, Marketing Director Philadelphia for Mondelez Europe said.
"We guarantee... Philadelphia is made of fresh milk from farms we know and trust, of close working relationships with our milk suppliers and from happy and healthy cows in higher welfare systems that also respect the environment. We are proud to be recognised by Compassion in World Farming for our efforts to source even more milk from farms with best welfare conditions.”
Another recipient of a Good Dairy Commendation was family cheese and butter making business, AJ & RG Barber Ltd.
Using milk from their own farms and from an additional 140 trusted dairy farms in Somerset and Dorset, they create quality cheese using milk from cows that have access to pasture for an average of 200 days a year.
Compassion in World Farming said the award underlines the fact that smaller-scale, traditional dairy farming can produce higher welfare cheese.
Charlie Barber, director at Barber’s said: “At Barber’s we are committed to improving animal welfare standards and work collaboratively with our farmers and their vets to encourage improving health and welfare achievements on the farm. With this award we hope to strengthen our health and welfare credentials and appreciate just how important this approach is with customers and farmers alike."
Pic: istock/DigitalZombie
Norwegian poultry producer, Norsk Kyllig, and Norwegian discount retailer, REMA 1000 Norge, have worked collaboratively to implement the higher welfare requirements of the Better Chicken Commitment.
By developing a fully integrated value chain and actively marketing their slower growing ‘Hubbard’ chicken to their customers, they have created a market for their higher welfare chicken. CIWF said this model shows how improving animal welfare can be a win for both businesses and consumers alike. REMA has been able to increase its market share in terms of chicken sales in Norway.
For this work, both REMA 1000 and Norsk Kyllig received a Good Chicken Award, CIWF said.
“We are very proud and grateful, and it means a lot to us to receive this award. We believe that improving animal welfare is of great importance to secure a sustainable poultry industry in the future. The Good Chicken Award represents for us a validation of our efforts to ensure animal welfare throughout our value chain and underlines our contribution to improving the poultry industry," Kiell Stokbakken, CEO at Norsk Kyllig said.
Pic: GettyImages-Alina Rosanova
Yorkshire based Warrendale Wagyu has introduced specialised Wagyu genetics in around 80 dairy farms to produce a high value Wagyu cross, which they rear in higher welfare systems through specialist calf rearers.
As they own the calves and have excellent links with the dairy farms, they are able to ensure all the calves reared for their Wagyu Beef are given adequate colostrum, have short transport times and are moving to paired housing, CIWF said.
In recognition of this work Warrendale Wagyu was awarded a Good Calf Award.
Good Egg Award Winners
- Aldi UK (Retailer, UK)
- CH&CO (Food Service, UK)
- Coraya (Manufacturer/Producer, France)
- Fattoria Roberti (Manufacturer/Producer, Italy)
- Flunch (Food Service, France)
- Fresystem Spa (Manufacturer/Producer, Italy)
- Hippopotamus (Food Service, France)
- Lidl UK (Retailer, UK)
- Marr (Food Service, Italy)
- Noble Foods (Manufacturer/Producer, UK)
- Système U (Retailer, France)
- Taco Bell (Food Service, US)
Good Chicken Award Winners
- Franprix (Retailer, France)
- Norsk Kyllig (Manufacturer/Producer, Norway)
- REMA 1000 Norge AS (Retailer, Norway)
Good Turkey Award Winners
- COOK (Manufacturer/Producer, UK)
Good Calf Award Winners
- Drevon Veaux (Manufacturer/Producer, France)
- Morrisons (Retailer, UK)
- Schiever (Retailer, France)
- Warrendale Wagyu (Manufacturer/Producer, UK)
Good Dairy Commendation Winners
- AJ & RG Barbers Ltd (Manufacturer/Producer, UK)
- Casearia Sant’Anna (Manufacturer/Producer, Italy)
- COOK (Manufacturer/Producer, UK)
- Pensworth (Manufacturer/Producer. UK)
- Philadelphia (Manufacturer/Producer, Germany, Sweden, Austria, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Malta, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Iceland, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary)
Good Sow Commendation Winner
- Bastides Selection (Manufacturer/Producer, UK)
Good Rabbit Commendation Winner
- Carrefour (Retailer, France)
Cage Free Award Winner
- Coop UK (Retailer, UK)
Chinese Awards – these are awarded according to criteria that equate to stars, five stars being the highest achievement
Good Pig Production Award Winners
- Sunzhao Demonstration farm (Henan Nongduoduo Agro-pastoral Ecological Technology Co., Ltd.) 4*
- Heilongjiang Jingzhe Forest Food Group Co., Ltd. 3*
- JiNing DongSan Indigenous DaPulian Pig Breed Farm 3*
- No. 24 Houma Farm (Muyuan Foods Co., Ltd.) 2*
- Huaiji Guangdong Wens FoodStuff Group Co., Ltd. FengKai ChangAn Pig Farm (Wens FoodStuff Group Co., Ltd.) 2*
- Sifanghong (Yuxian) Agro-pastoral Development Co., Ltd. 2*
Pic: GettyImages/Jeffengeloutdoors