One of the leading supermarkets across the UK, Waitrose is known as number one for their animal welfare standards. With their ‘room to roam’ and free-range standards, the company have been promoting their animal welfare and supporting countless farmers across the UK.
Their new announcement now suggests their welfare will go beyond the UK and move to international welfare standards. Making a move bigger than any other supermarket in the UK, Waitrose own brand Italian continental meat is now supplied and produced to ‘the highest animal welfare standard.
Waitrose have stated the products: Milano Salami, Prosciutto Crudo, and Prosciutto di Parma. This selection of continental meats will be supplied from Lombardy and Emilia Romagna in the regions of Northern Italy.
The deli meat farmers have won the Good Pig Award and Good Sow Commendation as well as other awards from the Compassion in World Farming. Waitrose have stated: ‘this means pigs are going to have larger living spaces and straw bedding, and the sows give birth freely.’
Jake Pickering, Senior Manager for Agriculture at Waitrose has stated: “We are confinement free in UK farming and have a 2025 commitment for all our continental meat. This represents a huge step forward for the welfare standards within our Italian breeding, growing, and finishing supply chains and means that well over 50% of our continental meat sales will now come from higher welfare pigs.”
Consumers awareness of animal welfare within the food industry is becoming considerably popular in recent years. Although consumers know very little of the intricacies of animal farming, a profound feeling of cage free production and compassion is universally recognised.
Waitrose has made an important step towards improving welfare standards; and this will not only promote a positive consumer interest but promote a change in animal welfare for the UK and aboard.
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