Farm animal welfare
Animal welfare is a concern increasingly appearing on the agendas of consumers and NGOs as well as in draft regulations.
Background
Animal welfare has been one of Unilever’s core sustainable agriculture indicators since 2005. We also have several ongoing initiatives that involve animal-derived ingredients including cage-free eggs in Hellmann’s mayonnaise and the Ben & Jerry’s Caring Dairy programme that sources milk for our ice cream.
Our long-term ambition is to purchase all our animal-derived ingredients from sustainable sources. Taking into account the volumes purchased, we have decided to focus on cage-free eggs and our dairy supply chain within our current sustainable sourcing programme.
Our approach requires successful implementation by our supply chain partners. We plan to work on a sustainability action plan over a number of years in order to allow our suppliers to adapt to our animal welfare requirements.
Although Unilever is not a leading buyer of animal-derived ingredients, we have recently published a position statement to ensure a corporate approach on animal welfare for both eggs and dairy ingredients. The position statement is given below.
Our position
Unilever recognises that many consumers do have concerns about animal welfare and we take these concerns seriously.
Accordingly, we encourage our suppliers to participate in initiatives to define good animal welfare practices and improvement programmes in the countries and/or regions where they are sourcing, processing and marketing products from animal origin. Good animal welfare practices should address issues such as housing, hygiene, feeding and feed, health management and the management of antibiotics, water supply, mutilations, transport, slaughtering practices and traceability.
Our working method for monitoring and improving animal welfare will be based on the so-called five 'freedoms':
1. freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition
2. freedom from discomfort
3. freedom from pain, injury and disease
4. freedom to express normal behaviour
5. freedom from fear and distress.
We will ensure that our suppliers comply with legal requirements and accepted industry standards with respect to animal welfare.
We will develop animal welfare criteria in our sustainable sourcing programme, building on our experience in the sustainable agriculture programme and taking into account the different regional perceptions and adequate supply.
Programmes for the implementation of good animal welfare practices may be based on voluntary standards agreed by the industry and/or may be developed by third-party certification organisations. Unilever will be transparent on which specific standard the animal welfare criteria of its products will be based.
