U.K.-based farmed animal welfare nonprofit Compassion in World Farming is urging U.K. retailers to develop robust internal welfare policies and adhere to them closely when it comes to sourcing salmon, rather than continuing to be overly reliant on third-party assurances.
Some retailers have begun to disclose species-specific welfare criteria in their sourcing policies, but it’s still a case of too few and too little, according to Compassion Fish Food Business Manager Matt Baron, who added that many retailers simply tout certification labels that don’t include welfare assurances.
“We tell them it’s OK to have those assurances, but that they really should take ownership of the welfare direction they are going in and be a leader, showing the public what they are doing behind the scenes,” Baron said. “Assurance schemes have their place, and they've served the industry well until now. A lot of food businesses see them as a kind of holy grail in terms of their labeling, but – and this is no secret – many certification schemes will … agree they’re lacking specifics when it comes to welfare. I think many have now noticed this demand from their supply chain and outside stakeholders. They’ve started looking into it and started some improvements, but they're still quite a way behind where they need to be.”
To spur the drive toward developing better internal welfare policies, Compassion recently launched its Salmon Retailer Spotlight, comparing U.K. retailer policies on its own-brand fresh, frozen, and smoked salmon. This analyzes a different part of the supply chain than the organization’s Salmon Welfare Scorecard, which evaluates global salmon producers’ public-facing welfare policies.
The scorecard has asserted that as an industry, aquaculture ...
