Resumen de Welfare at slaughter:: BVA renews call for labelling of non-stun meat

• THE BVA is calling on the European Commission to back proposals to introduce labelling of meat produced from animals that were not stunned before slaughter following publication of the results of a Europe-wide study assessing whether consumers want this information when they buy meat.

  The final report of the ‘Study on information to consumers on the stunning of animals’ was released last month, having been submitted to the European Commission in February. The study was commissioned as part of the EU Strategy on the Protection and Welfare of Animals 2012-2015 and was conducted in response to a request from the European Parliament following the adoption of a regulation on the provision of food information to consumers. It was carried out by a group of consultancy organisations in July and August 2013, with information being gathered through a literature review, interviews with stakeholders and Commission staff, a telephone-based survey of 13,500 purchasers of meat (500 from each of 27 EU member states), a focus group with EU-level stakeholders, and six case studies from member states.

  As part of the telephone survey, respondents were asked to spontaneously …