Safeway results - Animals

Indicator 6.1 View criteria

Issue: Corporate commitment to farm animal welfare standards

Indicator: Board-level responsibility for and policy on farm animal welfare standards, and promotion

Safeway has both a named board member responsible for animal welfare and a written corporate farm animal welfare policy.

Indicator 6.2 View criteria

Issue: The welfare of breeding pigs - pregnant sows

Indicator: Sales of pigmeat from progeny of breeding sows kept in stall or tether systems

Stall and tether produced pigmeat is not sold under Safeway’s own label with the exception of ham (9.6% stall and tether, originating from continental meats). No data was submitted for branded pigmeat sales.

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Indicator 6.3 View criteria

Issue: The welfare of laying hens and broiler (meat) chickens

Indicator: Sales of shell eggs by production system

Safeway remains one of the few major retailers to sell more than 50% non-cage eggs; 52% of whole-eggs sold originate from non-caged systems.

Indicator: Sales of fresh and frozen chicken by production system

The vast majority of Safeway chicken meat is intensively produced, with only 2% of sales being reared in high welfare systems.

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Indicator 6.4 View criteria

Issue: Transport of farm animals

Indicator: Policy on transport of farm animals

Safeway sets a welcome policy maximum of 6 hours for red meat animals travelling for slaughter.   Across all red meat species, average journey times remain well within the maximum permitted by company policy. Safeway reports average journey times of 3 hours for cattle and sheep, and 2 hours for slaughter pigs.

Overall commentary and examples of good practice

Safeway’s relative performance on animal welfare compared with other major retail companies remains good.

Examples of good practice

  Areas for improvement

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Supermarket comments

“Safeway continues to strive towards improved standards of animal welfare on farm and in factory. For instance we have recently completed trial work in Scotland, looking at improvements on farm. This took into account hygiene standards, animal health and effects on the local environment. The next stage is to look at developing this project into a practical everyday application.

Safeway sponsored and funded a poultry seminar this year through Langford (Bristol University). The subject matter included leg weakness and hock burn, the speakers presenting were leaders in the field and the event was supported by retailers, processors including a number of non-governmental organisations.

Our commitment to welfare standards includes visits to overseas suppliers where our standards are exactly the same. In 2004 our technical department will spend around 3 weeks in South Africa looking at Poultry and Prawn farming. These visits will include audits not only of the production facilities, farms, breeding units and feed mills, but also the workforce itself in line with Safeway’s commitments to ETI codes of practices.”

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