Document type: article published by Welfarm
Author: Welfarm
Preview: The retailer specializing in organic products has announced the rollout of the Animal Welfare Label on its line of broiler chickens. This initiative makes Naturalia the first organic retailer in France to adopt this labeling system.
Naturalia, the Casino Group’s organic brand, now displays the Animal Welfare Label on its private-label chicken products. The retailer is thus enabling its customers to make informed choices at the store by providing clear and reliable information on farming practices and animal welfare standards.
The Animal Welfare Label is based on a scientific, transparent, and robust methodology that assesses welfare standards throughout the animals’ entire lives, from birth through slaughter. This approach goes beyond existing standards—including those for organic farming (AB)—by providing information specifically focused on animal welfare that is directly accessible to consumers on store shelves.
What does the Animal Welfare Label offer that the AB label does not?
The AB label already guarantees a certain level of animal welfare in livestock farming practices, but the Animal Welfare Label provides a detailed, complementary assessment. In particular, it allows for:
– assessing the level of well-being and protection of chickens from birth through slaughter, with specific criteria for breeding stock, transport, and slaughter;
– to conduct direct observations of the chickens by evaluating outcome indicators (chicken behavior, cleanliness and crumbly texture of the litter, etc.);
– to provide a simple benchmark for comparing products, including within the same organic category.
According to Sidonie Tagliante, Director of Marketing, Communications, and CSR at Naturalia, “Transparency must be a standard, not an option.” With the Animal Welfare Label, we aim to offer our customers a simple, reliable, and robust benchmark that allows them to better understand the conditions of rearing, transport, and slaughter, and to make choices consistent with their expectations regarding animal welfare.”
Greater transparency for consumers
Welfarm is a member of the Animal Welfare Label Association, which promotes this labeling, alongside other NGOs and retailers, including Casino, the parent company of Naturalia. We welcome Naturalia’s initiative and hope it will inspire other French organic retailers to follow suit. The growing number of retailers joining the Animal Welfare Label Association reflects a desire to gradually structure the market around a shared goal: to increase transparency for consumers regarding the level of animal welfare in store aisles.
