Good animal health and welfare greatly influences meat quality and is vital to our business and our reputation.
Our understanding of animal welfare encompasses the Five Freedoms and the Five Domains and applies these principles to the slaughterhouse setting to ensure that we meet basic welfare requirements and provide an enriched welfare experience for our livestock. All our processing sites are Red Tractor or Bord Bia approved, and audited annually, offering external assurance that we meet required animal welfare standards.
Two fulltime vets oversee all animal welfare activities and our sites each have fully trained animal welfare teams. We are founding members of the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials, a group of retailers, manufacturers, processors and food service companies working to promote and support responsible antimicrobial use and action on antimicrobial resistance.
We will continue to maintain high standards of animal health and welfare, to help reduce mortality and food waste.
Sites
We continue to enhance on site livestock handling facilities in line with best practice and are guided by company vets and third party experts in the field of livestock welfare enrichment.
Sites are encouraged to try new ideas and share them with the rest of the group; past successes include the addition of brushes or ‘scratchers’ in our cattle pens and the use of a life-sized plastic sheep to encourage sheep movement in the lairages.
We have an internal welfare recognition award for individuals across our sites who go above and beyond in their efforts to improve animal welfare.
Bespoke training is provided across our sites, with external training delivered by the University of Bristol and internal training including self-directed e-learning, in-person training and welfare webinars.
Our Progress so far
Read our latest Sustainability Report to learn more about the actions we have taken so far on the journey to a better future.
Our Assurance And Collaboration.
We invite external third-party oversight and verification of business policy, practice and performance, to provide confidence to our stakeholders. Due to the fragmented nature of our supply chains, we alone cannot drive change and we work with producers, processors, customers and trade bodies to improve the sustainable sourcing of livestock and to encourage the transition to more sustainable practices. Key platforms for collaboration include Origin Green, Meat Industry Ireland, BMPA, AHDB, ERBS, WRAP and the Food Data Transparency Partnership.
Insights
We aim to take big steps to ensure our footprints are small in supporting our goal of transitioning to a net zero emission company by 2050.
