Document type: Answer to o a question, published in th Journal Officiel de la République Française
Authors: question : M. Jean-Michel Brard (Loire-Atlantique (9th district) - Horizons & Indépendants). Answer: Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty.
Question: Mr. Jean-Michel Brard draws the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty to the consideration of animal welfare in the marketing of food products of animal origin. The Law on the transparency of information on agricultural and food products was promulgated on June 10, 2020. It makes it compulsory for consumers to be informed on the provenance of the products they consume, but the issue of animal welfare and in particular the conditions under which animals are reared but also slaughtered remain of secondary concern. Despite this, successive Ministers of Agriculture have always assured us that animal welfare is of paramount importance. He therefore asks whether the French government intends to study the introduction of labelling on all food products to inform consumers on the welfare status of the farm animals they choose, for both raw and processed products.
Answer: For several years now, the French government has been committed to animal welfare, responding to strong and legitimate expectations from the public, condemning all acts of animal abuse, whether in livestock farming, abattoirs or in private homes. The government is aware of French consumers' expectations regarding the origins of the products they consume. In this respect, labels or symbols on non-pre-packaged products play a particularly important role in providing information on the origins of products and farming conditions. To date, France has favored a voluntary approach to animal welfare labelling, enabling producers who so wish to highlight practices that go beyond simple compliance with European legislation. What is more, labelling must not detract from the value of complying with European legislation on animal welfare, already one of the most stringent in the world, compared with imported products that fail to meet this standard. Further, while there is currently no specific animal welfare labelling system, it is important to point out that some official quality and origin identification signs or labels include criteria relating to farming conditions. In some cases, these are clearly noted, as in the case of "free-range eggs", but for the most part this information is not made particularly explicit on labels. As part of the roadmap resulting from the "États généraux de l'alimentation", the French National Food Council has been tasked with examining the possibility of experimenting with labelling relating to livestock farming methods. This could take the form of labelling similar to that which already exists for eggs, but for all animal production sectors. In particular, this project will enable us to establish what is needed to improve the information provided to consumers by providing this sort of label. In addition, the French Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety Agency (Anses), being conscious of the many private initiatives in the field of animal production welfare standards, has commissioned its own scientific collective expertise to provide a basis for guidelines that would ensure both the relevance of labelling standards with regard to animal welfare and harmonization between the various standards. In addition to Anses, INRAE (the French national research institute for agriculture, food and the environment), the national veterinary schools and Ifremer (the French research institute for the exploitation of the sea) took part in this expertise.
