BENCHMARK IS DRIVING CHANGE ON ANIMAL WELFARE
Yesterday saw the publication of the latest Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW), which ranks 150 global food giants on their animal welfare performance.
BBFAW is the world’s leading annual assessment of the food industry’s farm animal welfare policies, practices and performance, assessing many of the world’s best known food firms across 51 criteria and 5 pillars, and ranking into six tiers. It’s a programme supported by partners Compassion in World Farming and FOUR PAWS with Chronos undertaking the research for the benchmark as-well as managing the secretariat for the initiative.
This year’s results are the second published since BBFAW introduced more stringent criteria and the results show that while a leading group of companies are demonstrating best practice, a significant block of large food companies (79%), including household names like Nestlé and McDonalds remain in the bottom two tiers for a second consecutive year.
Some encouraging findings from this year include:
Greggs PLC joined Marks & Spencer, Premier Foods and Waitrose as a top performer. These four companies achieved a Tier 2 ranking (of six tiers).
In total, 14 companies improved their tier ranking, with the overall average score across all companies rising one percentage point for the second consecutive year.
Three companies (Fonterra, Marks & Spencer, Premier Foods) broke into high ‘B’ grades for first time on BBFAW’s Impact Rating - which assesses whether the company is delivering meaningful welfare improvements for animals in their operations and supply chains.
There was a four percentage point rise in companies acknowledging the need to reduce reliance on animal-sourced foods as a business issue (29% of companies, compared to 25% in 2023). Two companies - Waitrose and Hilton Food Group - scored 85% for this set of questions compared to an average score of just 11%.
Some less encouraging findings included:
A majority of food companies (118 of 150 companies) rated in BBFAW’s bottom two tiers, so provide limited evidence that they are managing animal welfare effectively. These include Nestlé, McDonalds, Cargill, Tyson Foods and Yum! Brands - the owners of KFC - all in the bottom two tiers for second consecutive year of the revised benchmark.
Only 42% of companies have commitments in place to end prophylactic and routine metaphylactic antibiotic use – despite the risk of surging antibiotic resistance.
A large majority of benchmarked companies (91%) score the lowest ‘Impact Rating’ grades – ‘E’ or ‘F’. This means they provide limited evidence they are delivering improved welfare impacts for farm animals in their supply chains.
Chronos view
BBFAW is a momentous, and influential, programme of work and each year we see how it is driving sector-wide progress on the issue of animal welfare. We have seen significant progress on issues such as close confinement and humane slaughter and it is very encouraging that 128 companies (85%) now have formal policies on farm animal welfare compared to just 46% of the 68 companies evaluated when BBFAW started in 2012.
Part of BBFAW’s ability to drive change comes from the backing of a coalition of institutional investors, managing over $2.4 trillion in assets, who will now engage with the companies in the year ahead to drive improvement. BNP Paribas Asset Management is one of those investors and Robert-Alexandre Poujade (ESG analyst, biodiversity lead) commented, “The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare is a unique yardstick for the market that gives investors a valuable insight into the management quality of individual food companies. It helps to shine a light on which companies are best managing not just on-the-ground animal welfare systems, but business-critical issues such as reputational risk, resilient supply chains and antimicrobial resistance. This year the results tell us a lot about which companies are taking this issue seriously.”
It was also interesting to note contrasting results on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. US companies scored poorly across all parts of the benchmark with 42 of 43 US-based companies (98%) in the bottom two tiers, and an average score of just 12%. By contrast UK-based firms are best performers with an average score of 41%.
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Full results can be found at www.bbfaw.com.
Find out more from our animal welfare team via our recent Chronos Talks Podcast or on our animal welfare page.
