Wilson Vale are fully committed to operating in a sustainable, responsible manner and to improving animal welfare standards across our business.

We work closely with our customers and our supply chain in an effort to continually improve the animal welfare standards in line with the five freedoms as defined by the Farm Animal Welfare Council as:

• Freedom from hunger and thirst – by ready access to fresh water and a diet designed to enhance optimum health.
• Freedom from discomfort – by providing an appropriate living environment with adequate shelter and a comfortable resting area.
• Freedom from disease and injury – by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment
• Freedom to display normal behaviour – by providing sufficient space, adequate facilities and company appropriate to the animal’s own kind and natural habitat requirements.
• Freedom from fear and distress – by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

Additional to our five freedoms commitment around animal welfare, we continually monitor how our food is sourced.

Working with our clients we will always strive for the highest standards of ingredients to be used in our kitchens that work alongside our clients budget requirements.

Eggs

We are committed to 100% supply of free range eggs – both liquid and shell.

We are committed to only purchasing eggs that are free range, both liquid and shell, and are working to ensure all egg ingredient products are cage free by 2025. At times, farmers are required temporarily to keep free-range egg laying hens in barns to stop the spread of Avian Flu, but they will be free-range again as soon as safely possible.

The Better Chicken Commitment

Wilson Vale have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) thereby committing to meet or exceed the standards set out in the BCC by 2026 for 100% of the chicken in our UK supply chain.

We are working with our clients to encourage them to support our work with the BCC to improve the living conditions of all birds within the UK food chain.

By 2026, we will require all of our poultry suppliers to meet the better chicken commitment as outlined below for 100% of our supply, where our clients agree to join our commitment:

1. Comply with all EU animal welfare laws and regulations, regardless of the country of production.
2. Implement a maximum stock density of 30kg/m2 or less. Thinning is discouraged, but if it must be practiced can only be done so once per flock to reduce the stress on the birds.
3. Adopt breeds that demonstrate higher welfare outcomes: either from the following breeds- Hubbard Redbro, Hubbard Norfolk Black, JA757, JACY57, 787,957 or 987, Rambler Ranger, Ranger Classic, Ranger Gold, or other breeds that meet the criteria of the RSPCA Broiler Breed Welfare Assessment Protocol currently or in the future.
4. Meet improved environmental standards including: At least 50 LUX of light, including natural light, at least 2 meters of usable perch and 2 pecking substrates per 1,000 birds, no cages or multi tiered systems and air quality that meets or exceeds the EU Broiler directive.
5. Adopt controlled atmospheric stunning using inert gas, multi phase systems or effective electrical stunning without live inversion.
6. Demonstrate compliance to the above via a third party audit and annual public reporting on progress.

Our Progress So Far

Partially due to lack of government legislation around the issue progress across the industry has been slow over the past 12 months.

We have seen a small improvement in relation to perch space and living conditions, but slower growing breeds are still in very short supply and as a result those that are available are cost prohibitive in many cases.

The industry is making slow progress towards the 2026 BCC target goals, which we are committed to supporting in whatever means possible. We will continue to engage with existing suppliers and make efforts to find new ones, who are able to support our commitments.

Following is our progress report to for 2024.