Why is Jamie Oliver excited?

If you guessed animal welfare, you’re spot on.

For years, compassionate consumers have been pushing for better welfare conditions for the millions of animals used in Australian food production. The good news is we’re now starting to see these efforts making a real difference, thanks to dedicated farmers converting their farming practices to more humane alternatives. In the past, products with a focus on animal welfare were hard to find and seemed to be reserved for the selective ‘ethical’ consumer or high end shopper, but now they’re mainstream. This is very exciting!

Woolworths’ partnership with Jamie Oliver has helped see significant improvement for farm animals. Millions of Australian meat chickens will now live better lives thanks to Woolworths’ move towards stocking RSPCA Approved chicken in stores nationally. Additionally, the phasing out of all cartons of cage eggs sold in-store and used in Woolworths’ Own Brand products by 2018 is great news for Australian layer hens.

So what does Jamie have to say about it?

“Back in 2013 me and Woolworths put our heads together on loads of issues, from health and wellbeing to animal welfare, and decided to set ourselves some ambitious goals to raise the bar.

Animal welfare is something I’ve always cared a great deal about, even from a very young age. Higher-welfare farming means that the animals are mentally and physically in a better place, which ultimately produces a more responsible product.

This is why I was so thrilled when Woolworths announced that all their branded fresh chicken standards would be raised to either RSPCA Approved or free-range – this is amazing news, and I don’t think there are many supermarkets in the world that can say that! We’re still working away on eggs in the background too, with more and more cage-free facilities being built as we speak. It’s hugely exciting to see animal welfare being improved on this type of scale.”

– Jamie Oliver

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