Compassion’s Awards Celebrate Continual Drive in Farm Animal Welfare Across the Globe.
The winds of change continue to blow across the world’s most influential food companies as more and more recognise the need to take farm animal welfare seriously. Over the last couple of years, driven by consumer demand, investor considerations and market forces, commitments on cage-free eggs have spread from the US, to Europe and the UK, crossing all sectors and laying the foundations for the end of the cage age, while progress has also been made on the living conditions of broiler chickens.
Compassion in World Farming celebrated those companies committed to change at their annual Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards, which took place on Thursday 21 June at Les Salons Hoche, Paris hosted by European journalist and broadcaster, Alex Taylor.
Alex Taylor said: “As a former vegetarian (now flexitarian!) – and having hosted many conferences on the subject, I’m convinced we are at a turning point in the general public’s attitude towards animal welfare. I’m delighted to be hosting this year’s ceremony and to have the opportunity to celebrate those companies that are doing so much, in very practical ways, to advance a cause which is, above all – simply humane. I truly believe their work is invaluable.”
This year there was a total of 59 awards celebrating market-leading food businesses for their higher welfare policies and practices which are estimated to positively impact the lives of over 209 million animals each year.
Compassion’s main awards (which comprise the Good Egg Awards, Good Chicken Awards, Good Dairy Awards, Good Pig Awards and Good Rabbit Awards), were accompanied this year by the prestigious Special Recognition Award and the 2018 Best Innovation Award and Best Marketing Award for the food service and manufacturing sectors.
Overall there were 14 Good Egg Awards, three Good Chicken Awards, two Good Dairy Commendations, one Good Calf Commendation, four Good Rabbit Commendations and three Good Pig Awards. Six companies from the Food Service sector were presented with awards at the ceremony and ranged from contract caterers, to coffee shop chains and a restaurant chain to name a few.
The restaurant chain, TGI Fridays was presented with a Good Egg Award for their commitment to only source cage-free eggs for their UK restaurants by 2023. This includes all shell eggs and egg products directly sourced as ingredients by TGI Fridays UK.
Samir Osman, Technical Manager at TGI Fridays said: “Wework continuously with our suppliers to ensure we have complete transparency across our global supply base to meet the high expectations of our guests in relation to food quality, safety and procuring from sustainable sources with animal welfare in mind. TGI Friday’s is proud to be awarded the Good Egg Award as recognition of the high standards and quality of our products. This year we aim to invest even more in our supply chain by setting up a new internal technical department and procuring bespoke supplier assurance systems to ensure supply.”
Well-known coffeehouse chain, Starbucks, received a Good Egg Award for their commitment to source exclusively cage-free eggs and egg products across Europe by 2020. The leading child nutrition company, Ella’s Kitchen, which focuses on developing healthy, sustainable food for infants has previously received a Good Egg Award and a Good Chicken Award from Compassion. This year, they picked up a Good Pig Award in recognition of their policy to only source pork from organic systems.
Chris Jenkins from Ella’s Kitchen said: “At Ella’s Kitchen we are committed to working with our suppliers to continually improve and achieve consistent high animal welfare standards. We are delighted to be working with Compassion in World Farming and to have received the Good Chicken, the Good Egg and now the Good Pig awards as recognition for our work in this field.”
Two food service companies were presented with Good Rabbit Commendations this year: Sodexo Belgium sources all its rabbit meat exclusively from higher welfare, cage free systems and Elior Group, which serves 1.4 million meals every day, for its commitment to only source only higher welfare rabbit meat, working in collaboration with its supplier Terrena Nouvelle Agriculture.
Poulehouse is the first French company which is revolutionising egg production by offering ‘eggs that don’t kill laying hens’. The company sells only organic eggs and do not slaughter their end of lay hens but allows them to live out their lives in fully funded ‘retirement homes’. In recognition of this unique commitment to laying hen welfare, Poulehouse received a Good Egg Award.
The prestigious Special Recognition Award, Best Innovation Award and Best Marketing Award were all presented to manufacturers this year, although they were open to food service businesses.
The UK’s leading supplier of continental meats to the retail, food manufacturing and food service markets, Winterbotham Darby was awarded this year’s prestigious Special Recognition Award, which is kindly supported by the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust.
Winterbotham Darby has been working with Compassion for a number of years to promote higher welfare practices in the pig sector across Europe. They have developed a unique tiered animal welfare certification scheme for their continental meat suppliers (which recently received UKAS accreditation – ISO: 17065) which is driving welfare improvements and helping to secure cage-free commitments across their European supply chain. Their huge investment and commitment has been fundamental in continuing to raise the bar for pig welfare and has already shown promising results, particularly in countries like Italy and Spain – not known for their higher welfare credentials –where their suppliers are leading the way on free-farrowing systems in their countries.
Dutch manufacturer Kipster deserves a special mention for winning not only a Good Egg Award but the Best Marketing Award too. Both accolades were awarded for having developed the ‘world’s first carbon neutral egg’. Their innovative farm has been designed to address animal welfare as well as sustainability concerns, all whilst delivering an affordable product to consumers. Through their various marketing activities and their strong partnership with Lidl, their products have been selling out in-store as consumers support the notion of buying not only animal-friendly but sustainable products too.
The Best Innovation Award went to Germany’s SELEGGT for their work in helping to address the issue of killing male chicks in the egg industry – a practice which affects over 5 billion chicks each year. SELEGGT has developed an endocrinological method for identifying the sex of hatching eggs before the embryo develops the capacity to feel pain. The male (and unfertilised) eggs can be humanely rejected early on and turned into high-quality feed.
In recent years, Compassion has been working in partnership with the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (ICCAW) in China, developing an awards programme to recognise the higher welfare achievements of Chinese pig and poultry producers. The awards are based on criteria that equate to stars with five being the highest accolade. This year there were 17 Good Pig Production Award winners (with one five star winner), five Good Egg Production Award winners (of which three achieved five stars) and seven Good Chicken Production Winners, again with three achieving 5 stars. In total, this year’s Chinese Award winners are set to benefit more than 180 million farm animals every year.
Dr Tracey Jones, Director of Food Business at Compassion in World Farming concludes: “There has undoubtedly been a sea-change in attitudes to farm animal welfare within the last decade. Driven by consumer demand, investor considerations and market forces, more and more companies are making the move towards to cage-free production and taking steps to tangibly improve the lives of millions of farm animals across the globe.
We encourage companies to invest in the best and develop systems that are not only fit for purpose to deliver a good quality of life, but are fit for the future too, by meeting the growing demand for more ethical and sustainable food. I’d like to congratulate all this year’s winners and look forward to continuing to help them fulfil their higher welfare commitments and pledges. It’s great to see industry leaders across the globe pushing the boundaries and really driving change.”
Full list of winners: (full details of winners’ policies available on request)
Good Egg Award Winners
CAVAC (Manufacturer – France)
Danone (Manufacturer – Global)
Kipster (Manufacturer – Netherlands)
La Boulangère (Manufacturer – France)
LIDL (Retailer – Benelux)
LIDL (Retailer – France)
LIDL (Retailer – Italy)
Morrisons (Retailer – UK)
Nestlè SA (Manufacturer – Europe/USA)
Poulehouse (Food Service – France)
Sabbatani (Manufacturer – Italy)
Sodebo (Manufacturer – France)
Starbucks (Food Service – UK)
TGI Friday’s (Food Service – UK)
Good Chicken Award Winners
Blue Apron (Retailer – USA)
Danone ELN (Manufacturer – Europe)
Diana Food (Manufacturer – USA)
Good Dairy Commendation Winners
C’est qui le patron (LSDH) (Manufacturer – France)
Laiterie Saint Père (Manufacturer – France)
Good Calf Commendation Winner
Veau Brin d’Or (Sobeval) (Manufacturer – France)
Good Pig Award winners
Co-op (Retailer – UK)
Ella’s Kitchen (Food Service – UK)
SpoiltPig (Manufacturer – UK)
Good Rabbit Commendation Winners
Danone ELN (Manufacturer – Europe)
Eleveurs Responsables (ALPM) (Manufacturer – France)
Elior (Food Service – France)
Sodexo (Food Service – Belgium)
Best Innovation Award 2018
SELEGGT (Manufacturer – Germany)
Best Marketing Award 2018
Kipster (Manufacturer – Netherlands)
Special Recognition Award 2018 – supported by the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust
Winterbotham Darby (Manufacturer – UK)
Chinese Awards – these are awarded according to criteria that equate to stars, five stars being the highest achievement
Good Pig Production Award Winners (17 winners in total)
- Heilongjiang Ama Ranch Agricultural Group Co., Ltd. (*5)
- Henan Liqun Farming Co., Ltd. Cooperative University: Shangqiu Normal University (*4)
- Guizhou Guidu Modern Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. (*4)
- Chuying Agro. Pastoral Group(Tibet) Co., Ltd. (*4)
- Liaoning Zhenxing Ecology Group Development Co., Ltd. (*4)
- No. 3 Factory of Shandong Tuhe Food Co., Ltd. (*4)
- Beijing Heiliu Stockbreeding Technology Co., Ltd. (*3)
- Henan Huayang Danxi Pig Genetics Limited Company (*3)
- Anhui Lotus Zhongzhi Xumu Technical Co., Ltd. of Qinglian Food (*3)
- Jining Anxin Farming Co., Ltd. (*3)
- Zaozhuang Black Pig Breeding Farm of Shandong Chunteng Food (*3)
- Shandong Unice Food Technology Co., Ltd. (*3)
- Inner Mongolia Dahaoheshan Agriculture & Animal Husbandry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (*2)
- Inner Mongolia Pengcheng Animal Husbandry Development Co. Ltd. (*2)
- Shanxi Changrong Agriculture Technology Co., Ltd. (*2)
- Chuzhou Wodeli Farming Co., Ltd. of Yurun Group (*2)
- Shanghai Hengjian Agriculture & Animal Husbandry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (*1)
Good Egg Production Award Winners (5 winners in total)
- Luhua Chicken Ecological Free-range Base of Shandong Jinqiu Agro-Pastrol Technology Co., Ltd. (*5)
- Chengdu Xiangnong Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. Farm (*5)
- Wangqing Qianwang Under Forest Breeding Co.,Ltd. (*5)
- Animal Welfare Poultry Farm of Jiangsu Hongxuan Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd. (*4)
- Qingtongxia No.3 Breeding Base of Ningxia Xiaoming Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. (*3)
Good Chicken Production Award Winners (7 winners in total)
- Luhua Chicken Ecological Free-range Base of Shandong Jinqiu Agro-Pastrol Technology Co., Ltd. (*5)
- Xueshan Chicken Farms of Changzhou Tianmu Poultry Co., Ltd. of Jiangsu Lihua Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. (*5)
- Chengdu Xiangnong Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. Farm (*5)
- Modern Broiler Farms of Shandong Fengxiang Co., Ltd. (*3)
- Cargill Animal Protein (Anhui) Co., Ltd. Growout Farms (*3)
- No.1 Broiler Farm of Dadi Yihe chicken breeding specialized cooperation of Yantai Dadi Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. (*3)
- Nantong Chai Tai Livestock & Poultry Co., Ltd. Farms (*3)
