BBFAW: 'food companies need to improve animal welfare'

The tenth annual Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) report, launched on 16 March 2022, reveals that while companies continue to invest in animal welfare, they are too slow in delivering meaningful welfare impacts on the ground.  

BBFAW – the leading global measure of policy commitment, performance and disclosure on animal welfare in food companies - is designed to help drive higher farm animal welfare standards in the world’s leading food businesses and provide a benchmark to inform investor choices.

The 2021 report reveals that of the 150 companies evaluated:

• 134 (89%) now acknowledge farm animal welfare as a business issue (compared to 71% of the 68 companies evaluated in 2012)
• 122 companies (81%) have formal policies on farm animal welfare (compared to 46% of companies in 2012)
• 119 companies (79%) have published formal objectives and targets for animal welfare (compared to just 26% of companies in 2012).

Despite these positive outcomes, the new BBFAW Impact Rating introduced in 2021 – where companies are ranked A-F on the 10 performance impact questions – shows that the implementation of animal welfare improvements continues to lag policies and governance.

The 2021 benchmark doubled down on companies’ Performance Reporting and Impact. This increased focus on impact resulted in 36 companies dropping a tier.  However, six companies improved their score sufficiently to increase their ranking by one tier.

View ‘The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare Report 2021’
Bbfaw.com