Which retailers use the PSA animal welfare labelling:

Why a rating on packaging

Even if consumers want to look at animal welfare aspects when shopping: a multitude of packaging, brands and advertising promises make the desired choice very difficult. With the Animal Welfare Rating, we can present a uniform and comprehensible animal welfare rating directly on the product, which offers help at the moment of the purchase decision.

This rating is created and further developed by the Competence Centre for Farm Animals of the Swiss Animal Protection STS.
The rating of the individual products is also carried out by the STS according to this rating scheme. The retail trade has no influence on the results.

What the rating on the packaging says

Click on the graphic to find out:

The underlying rating system is the same as for the rating platform www.essenmitherz.ch.

Does Swiss Animal Protection receive money from retailers?

Retailers who use the SAP assessment logo pay the SAP for the work involved in assessing new products at standard hourly rates. In contrast, the development of the assessment system, which is important for independent animal welfare work, is funded by the SAP itself. This ensures that donations are not used for work for the benefit of the retail trade and, at the same time, that no company or organisation can influence the rating system.

With the online tool "essenmitherz.ch", the SAP intends to examine all food of animal origin available in Switzerland over time and evaluate it for relevant animal welfare criteria.

In doing so, not only animal welfare labels will be looked at, as is often the case, but also designations of origin, quality seals, simple advertising brands as well as the legal and private minimum standards in Switzerland and abroad (EU/world). For the user of "essenmitherz.ch", information on the ratings is visible down to the detailed requirements.

The focus is on the individual product that can be purchased, not on entire quality labels. Why is that? Because the same quality label, the same legal basis, the same animal husbandry label, can have very good specifications for one animal species, while lagging far behind for another.

However, it is not only important to know the animal welfare value of individual products. It is equally important to gain an insight into the animal welfare efforts of those companies that sell articles of animal origin and earn money with them. For this reason, the STS will regularly survey retailers, catering wholesalers and system caterers operating in Switzerland on the composition of their product baskets and evaluate the data.

For each animal species that supplies food, the animal welfare requirements were assessed. The type of animal husbandry, basics of animal transport, what happens during slaughter, or even questions of control quality, verifiability of the flow of goods, etc.: we grouped and weighted up to 100 such detailed requirements relevant to animal welfare into 14 criteria for each animal category.

There are various factors that influence animal welfare. For example, sufficient space, a littered lying area and opportunities for outdoor exercise are central prerequisites for a species-appropriate life for farm animals. Unfortunately, however, these things are not given in many places and the differences between the various animal husbandry specifications are extremely large. Most labels in Switzerland, for example, require outdoor exercise, but very few require outdoor grazing. So not all outdoor exercise is the same. The duration per day, the size of the exercise area, the shading, etc. must also be taken into account. Some more far-reaching requirements may seem secondary at first glance, but they do have an influence on animal welfare, such as pecking stones to keep poultry occupied or cooling facilities for pigs.