Humane Society International (HSI) has found support from Australian consumers for changes to food labelling laws.
A survey conducted by the HIS asked respondents to identify what they understood to be meant by terms such as free range, bred free range, barn raised and caged, as well as seeking their views on the adequacy of current food labels and their desire for change.
Of the 3,085 survey responses processed by to date, 98.3 percent of respondents believe that full and adequate labelling is every consumer’s right, yet only 7.4 percent believe that current labels give enough information to allow them to make informed purchasing decisions. These data are of course not drawn from a random sample of the population. But they do show inadequacies in labelling.
It is fascinating looking at the proprotion of correct responses to questions about what labels mean. Interim results are summarised at the survey results page (view pie charts). It’s not too late to fill out the survey, but don’t read the answers first!
HSI is calling for a national and mandatory labelling scheme for the method of production of all meat, eggs and dairy products, that only permits the use of a limited number of legally defined and regulated animal-welfare descriptors.
See the resources below from HIS’s farm animal health pages:
Humane Choice label>
Humane Choice is a whole of farm accreditation system for free range pork, beef, lamb, chicken and egg producers.
Humane Society International
9 November 2009
See also the article:
Weasel words on poultry, pork labels
Sydney Morning Herald, 10 November 2009
[...] Consumers call for reform of food labelling Animal Rights Hub Australasia, 10 November 2009 [...]