Mandatory animal welfare labels rejected amid calls for detailed on-pack information

16 Dec 2020 --- EU farm ministers are urging the European Commission (EC) to improve animal welfare through a new labeling scheme that assesses the standards of livestock rearing. However, animal rights activists have criticized the efficacy of this proposed label for not going far enough, while calling for mandatory enforcement of this scheme.

The proposed labeling scheme was presented by EU farm ministers to the European Commission yesterday (December 15). But three out of four EU countries expressed no appetite for a mandatory label in a survey of 25 Member States conducted by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

“There is no regulation yet,” a spokesperson for the Council of the European Union tells FoodIngredientsFirst. “The Commission has not specified until now if it will make a legislative proposal. For the moment it has not taken any decision.”

“In its Farm to Fork action plan, the Commission indicated that it will evaluate and revise the existing animal welfare legislation by end 2023. Maybe the proposal on the animal welfare label will be included in this package,” they add.

“These conclusions are not a legal text but rather a political statement on the direction the Council would like to take on the issue. The conclusions call for an EU-wide label so it concerns all regions in the EU, there wouldn't be specific regions targeted.”

Calls for more information on the label
The proposed label does not include specific indications that help consumers distinguish between produce sourced from factory farms – where animals may be kept in cages or at high density – and extensive or organic systems with higher welfare standards.

“To be effective, the proposed label needs to be mandatory and to inform consumers about all the conditions in which animal products are produced,” underscores Olga Kikou, head of Compassion in World Farming EU.

Rising consumer scrutiny upon product provenance prompted Innova Market Insights to publish “Transparency Triumphs” as its Top Trend for 2021.Such information, which the current EU labeling scheme for eggs provides, is pegged by the animal rights group as “crucial for empowering consumers” to make better informed purchasing choices.

This will help consumers to distinguish between produce sourced from factory farms – where animals may be kept in cages or at high density – and extensive or organic systems with higher welfare standards.

European dairy sector weighs in on proposed label
“In practice, it will be rather difficult to define a pan-European animal welfare standard for dairy cows, since – for instance – the geographical and climate conditions vary a lot,” Alexander Anton, secretary general of the European Dairy Association, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“Next to that we have a huge ‘biodiversity’ in production styles and farm types within the European lactosphère. Most, if not all other livestock sectors have a much more ‘harmonized’ production system across Europe,” he details.

“Nevertheless, we are in contact with the EU Commission services to see in what way we can help to develop a dairy cow welfare framework that is fit for purpose and fits the diversity of the EU dairy sector.”

Calls for a harmonized label
As Council President for the past six months, Germany has been pushing for a harmonized animal welfare label. This is also a priority issue for the EU Commission.

“A common EU label on animal welfare would increase credibility and transparency in our markets and would enable consumers to make more informed choices. It would also help reward producers who respect those standards,” says Julia Klöckner, Germany’s federal minister of food and agriculture.

In presenting the label scheme, the EU ministers cited rising consumer demands to make food produced under improved animal welfare standards more recognizable. They also called for specific criteria to be taken into account when developing an EU-wide label. 

Rising consumer scrutiny upon product provenance prompted Innova Market Insights to publish “Transparency Triumphs” as its Top Trend for 2021, emphasizing the need for more robust traceability measures in animal produce among other farmed goods.

Ensuring “smooth interplay” with existing labels
Ministers proposing the labeling scheme also stressed the need to go “beyond current EU legal requirements” on animal welfare.

The proposed label would gradually expand to include all livestock species, covering their entire lifetime – including transport and slaughter.The label would gradually expand to include all livestock species, covering their entire lifetime – including transport and slaughter. In addition, it would further “ensure a smooth interplay with existing labels.”

“A weak animal welfare label can lead producers to make a token effort for farmed animals,” stresses Kikou at Compassion in World Farming EU. “The fact remains, however, that animals may still be in cages, unable to perform basic natural behaviors, and the majority of them may still be raised in factory farms.”

“As a consequence, this may eventually mislead people into buying more products from factory farms with the mistaken belief that they were produced to high standards and without having a full picture of the systems animals were raised in,” she continues.

“Far from being an improvement, such a label would instead worsen the environmental and health crises that the EU urgently needs to tackle. This voluntary label may also eventually delay much-needed legislation with new rules on the conditions in which animals are farmed.”

Be mindful of your food
According to Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union the Union and the Member States shall pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, “since animals are sentient beings.”

In light of demands for traceability across the full scope of the livestock supply chain, new technologies addressing this need have come to the fore.

A new agri-food platform, NSF Verify, is currently being developed to identify and digitally record an animal’s journey from birth through the supply chain. The supply chain tracing system holds real-time data in a secure blockchain-enabled database, providing “end-to-end traceability.”

Recently, US-based NovaQuest Capital Management announced a US$20 million product financing agreement with Mileutis, an Israeli bio-pharmaceutical company, to mitigate the use of antibiotics in animals. Mileutis’ protein-based therapeutics, such as Imilac, seek to naturally manage bovine mastitis – the most prevalent and costly disease in the dairy industry.

Meanwhile, a willingness to accept lab-grown cultured meat across Europe has been spotlighted. Mosa Meat conducted a study alongside Maastricht University, in the Netherlands, into the consumer acceptance of cultured meat, finding that some participants were willing to pay almost 40 percent more for cell-cultured meat than regular meat.

By Benjamin Ferrer