Review Animal Welfare QA Sytem in Europe

Summary

Australia needs quality assurance (QA) of animal welfare in its red meat industries to retain its high-end export markets. We considered options in existing UK systems by interviewing leaders in the development and assessment of animal welfare, and researchers investigating a business benchmark on farm animal welfare. The UK has two successful QA systems for intensive animal industries, Red Tractor Farm Assurance and Freedom Foods, but they differ in standards and processes and do not include red meat. 
To overcome these deficiencies, the Assurewel project developed a harmonized scheme that also improves transparency and traceability, adds measures of welfare outcomes and a systematic progression of standards, and trains animal welfare assessors. For the Australian red meat industry, Assurewel offered a foundation, to which we added context so the scheme would be relevant to our livestock management, transport and processing supermarkets and consumers. The scheme was paid for by government, by individual supply chain participants, and through an independent structure that is funded by contributions from all stakeholders. The outcome was an animal welfare QA scheme that would ensure the future of domestic and export markets for Australian red meat.