Many poultry, egg and pork companies that were examined in a recent report that evaluates animal welfare policies and practices showed signs of improvement.
The 2016 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) report is designed to improve corporate reporting on farm animal welfare management, policies, practices, processes and performance, resulting in tangible improvements to the welfare of animals raised for food production. The program is supported by partners Compassion in World Farming, Coller Capital, and World Animal Production.
Another aim of the report is to provide investors, governments, academics, non-governmental organizations, consumers and stakeholders with an independent, impartial and reliable assessment of individual company efforts to adopt higher animal welfare standards and practices.
The BBFAW report has been done annually since 2012. Nearly 100 companies from across the globe were included in the 2016 report. Several companies involved in poultry, egg and pork processing that are included in the most recent report were not listed in previous reports, including Hormel Foods, New Hope Liuhe, OSI Group, Charoen Pokphand and Kraft Heinz.
How companies ranked when compared to previous year
Companies were ranked in six tiers:
- Leadership
- Integral to business strategy
- Established but work to be done
- Making progress on implementation
- On the business agenda but limited evidence of implementation
- No evidence on the business agenda.
Among the businesses to show improvement when compared to the 2015 BBFAW report include Cranswick, BRF, Cargill, Danish Crown and Vion Food Group.
Keeping their ratings even with those of the previous year were Noble Foods, JBS, Tyson Foods, 2 Sisters Food Group, WH Group and Terrena Group.
Marfrig dropped a notch in the ratings for the 2015 report.
The following infographic shows the evaluated companies and the tier with which they have been associated.
