WINNIPEG (Staff) – Treatment of animals before slaughter is emerging as the latest issue in food politics, an Agriculture Canada official said last week.
Terry Whiting, of the department’s animal health operations division, said a British campaign that labels food according to how the animals were treated before slaughter is now being advertised in Canada.
British food producers can apply the Freedom Food logo to their products, provided they meet a code of conduct on how the animals have been treated.
“It’s got nothing to do with the quality of the product or the safety of the food. It’s a marketing ploy based on how the animal was treated before it was slaughtered,” Whiting said.
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Research has indicated consumers in the United Kingdom are prepared to pay up to 12 percent more for assurances their meat came from animals that were treated humanely.
Operated by the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Freedom Food program stipulates no battery hens, no tethered pigs and no overloading on trucks.
It is based on five principles: “Freedom from fear and distress; freedom from pain, injury and disease; freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; and the freedom to behave naturally,” said Whiting.
