The animal welfare initiative is becoming increasingly known and consistently popular with consumers; expansion planned for next year
According to a forsa survey, the Animal Welfare Initiative (ITW) is becoming better known and remains consistently popular with German consumers. For three years now, over 90 percent of consumers have found the ITW concept good or very good - in December 2020 it was 92 percent. While in December 2017 41 percent of Germans had heard of the ITW, three years later it is now 68 percent. This means that more than two thirds of German consumers are familiar with the animal welfare initiative. The ITW product seal, which states that the respective product only contains meat from participating ITW companies, has meanwhile been consciously noticed on the packaging by 35 percent of consumers. The representative survey by forsa Politik- und Sozialforschung GmbH was carried out in December 2020 on behalf of ITW.
"The results represent recognition of the joint, sustainable efforts of all partners from agriculture, the meat industry and trade," explains Dr. Alexander Hinrichs, Managing Director of the Animal Welfare Initiative. "It's good that German consumers also appreciate our joint commitment to more animal welfare across industry boundaries. We assume that the animal welfare initiative will become even more visible to consumers next year.”
The ITW plans to further disseminate its seal. The new ITW program for farmers will start in January 2021. While poultry meat products have been able to be labeled with the ITW seal since 2018, the initiative also makes this possible on a large scale for pork products in the new program. 70 percent of the poultry slaughtered in Germany and 24 percent of the fattening pigs produced in Germany already come from ITW participating farms. So far, 14,6 million fattening pigs have been registered annually for the new program from next year. This corresponds to an increase in the market share for pork to around 30 percent.
Farming labeling convinces consumers
A clear majority of Germans are also convinced of the type of husbandry labeling in the food retail trade. According to the forsa survey, 87 percent of consumers find them good or very good. 49 percent of consumers have already consciously noticed the type of husbandry labeling when shopping. In December 93, 2020 percent of those surveyed believe that all food retailers should participate in animal husbandry labelling, and 79 percent of consumers are convinced that labeling will lead to more conscious consumer shopping behavior, in which they will take greater account of animal welfare .
"These results confirm the decision of the participating retailers to introduce a common and uniform labeling of the husbandry type," Hinrichs continues. “The labeling of animal husbandry is probably one of the most important achievements in recent years when it comes to bringing the issue of 'animal welfare' closer to consumers. You can take animal welfare into account when making a quick and easy purchase decision and, if necessary, find out all the background information online. We are also working on a future expansion of the labeling of the type of husbandry.”
Consumers can now find the form of housing indicators in more than 20.000 branches of Aldi Süd, Aldi Nord, EDEKA, Kaufland, LIDL, Netto, Penny and REWE throughout Germany. The participating traders currently mark an average of around 90 percent of the total pork, chicken, turkey and beef goods with the husbandry label.
About the forsa survey
Forsa Politik- und Sozialforschung GmbH has repeatedly carried out a survey on the keeping of livestock in Germany and on animal welfare seals on behalf of the animal welfare initiative. As part of the current study, the awareness of nine animal welfare seals was examined. A total of 1.002 citizens aged 18 and over in the Federal Republic of Germany, selected according to a systematic random procedure, were surveyed. The survey was conducted from December 3 to 10, 2020 using the forsa.omninet survey panel. The results obtained can be transferred to the entire population aged 3 and over in Germany with the error tolerances possible for all sample surveys (in the present case +/- 18 percentage points).
About the Initiative animal welfare
With the Animal Welfare Initiative (ITW) launched in 2015, the partners from agriculture, the meat industry, the food trade and gastronomy are committed to their shared responsibility for animal husbandry, animal health and animal welfare in livestock farming. The animal welfare initiative supports farmers financially in implementing measures for the welfare of their livestock that go beyond the legal standards. The implementation of these measures is controlled across the board by the animal welfare initiative. The product seal of the Animal Welfare Initiative only identifies products that come from animals from participating farms of the Animal Welfare Initiative. The Animal Welfare Initiative is gradually establishing more animal welfare on a broad scale and is continuously being further developed.
