December 2022
· 7 min read
Animal wellness refers to the quality of life experienced by the animal and how the animal is coping with its current situation and surroundings.
Today’s socially conscious consumers are increasingly giving serious thought and concern to where their food comes from and how it was produced. This is very clear in grocery store aisles, where shoppers prefer to buy meat, eggs, and other sustainable and ethically sourced items. But what do the labels “treated humanely,” “ethically treated” or “cage-free” really mean?
The good news is that they typically mean that your grocer and the food processors and farms that supply their products are working to make sure the food consumers buy and eat is produced and raised with animal rights in mind. For decades, NSF experts have worked to advance animal interests and served as a key resource for animal advocates worldwide.
“Proper labeling shows that they have selected animal welfare-certified products from producers who agree there is no room for animal cruelty and who are committed to following rigorous standards for animal welfare,” says Dr. Elaine Vanier, a veterinarian and the Animal Welfare Program Lead for NSF.
Consumers want to understand what all of this means to them. Are their foods produced in a more environmentally friendly way? That’s where NSF comes in.
Dr. Vanier sums up the importance of consumers, suppliers, supermarket owners, NSF and other organizations working together, using the words of Temple Grandin: “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life, and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” Grandin designed the humane handling systems used at more than half of the cattle-processing facilities in the world.