Document type: interview report published by the VetAgro Sup Animal Welfare Chair
Author: La Chaire Bien-être animal
Preview: What is the Anses, and what are its main missions and achievements?
The Anses is a French health agency that provides scientific expertise. As a public administrative body, it reports to the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Ecological Transition, Labor and Consumer Affairs. Its role is to provide public decision-makers with the scientific benchmarks they need to better safeguard human health, including in the workplace, along with that of animals and plants, as part of the " One Health" principle. Together with its European and international counterparts, the Anses promotes the production of data and knowledge to strengthen global health safety (...)
Why take up the subject of animal welfare labellng?
Public interest in the conditions surrounding animals' lives on the farm and their subsequent deaths has grown steadily since the 2000s. This interest has gradually been taken on board by livestock professionals, along with the agri-food and distribution sectors. In addition, animal welfare is increasingly regulated at various levels, including that of the European Union (EU). What is more, the European Commission (EC) has included the opportunity offered by animal welfare labelling (AWL) in the timetable for its Farm to Fork strategy, and will state its position on this subject in 2024. The drafting of the guidelines for the development of animal welfare labelling reference systems proposed by Anses fits with the timing of these political actions. These guidelines are intended to establish a common framework, at a time when many labels are under development but with no mechanism to compare them. The Anses therefore took the initiative of proposing guiding principles based on its own definition of animal welfare (Anses, 2018) and on scientific data, to establish the criteria that should be considered in assessing animal welfare, enabling all food-producing vertebrate animal species and their associated farming systems to be covered. The report and corresponding expert opinion were published on the Anses website on May 2, 2024.
How would the Anses proposal enable a label to stand out from other authorised labels (organic, Label Rouge) and tags, trademarks, or symbols (animal welfare symbol)?
It's important to distinguish between a trademark, tag or symbol and an authorised label. The guidelines allow for the creation of a reference framework with a view to creating a tag, trademark or symbol. In the legal sense of the term, a label involves requirements that clearly distinguish it from a tag, trademark or symbol. In the absence of a legal definition, labels are defined by case law (...). Tags, trademarks or symbols are referred to in Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (known as INCO) (...). According to our expertise, there are several points that distinguish the process of obtaining an overall animal welfare rating from other systems for tags, trademarks or symbols, or labelling systems. (...)
What criteria do you suggest should be applied when assessing animal welfare for labelling purposes?
An individual's welfare is their quality of life as they perceive it. This welfare is both individual and concerns multiple domains. Each of the six areas of animal welfare includes one or more criterion/a to be assessed. For this multi-criteria approach, 14 animal welfare criteria have been identified. Each criterion is assessed by measuring at least one indicator, and priority must be given to indicators measured on the animals (Animal Based Measures, ABM).
You propose that the welfare of breeding animals should also be taken into account in the final score (...)
How did Anses go about drawing up this Opinion? Which experts were involved, from which disciplinary fields, and what was the decision-making process?
The Anses entrusted the task of examining this question to a working group, formed of 10 experts selected in accordance with the agency's principles (...)
In practical terms, what happens next? To whom are you addressWho is the report for?
The principles proposed by the experts are aimed at scientists and stakeholders who are planning to create labeling reference systems that include animal welfare assessment protocols for a given sector or category of animal. These principles are not directly addressed to consumers, although of course the labeling process must then be transparent and accessible to all. (...) This expert appraisal work was the subject of various reports: to the bureaux of the Direction Générale de l'Alimentation (DGAL) with an interest in the subject matter; to the European Commission and the EFSA; to the stakeholders who were interviewed by the working group (...).
