Consumers hold the key for 'fairer fillings'

Following on from National Sandwich Week (15-21 May) and the launch of the RSPCA Fairer Fillings campaign in Westminster – encouraging people to consider what they put into their favourite snack – both the RSPCA and Freedom Food are now urging retailers to offer more higher welfare ‘fairer fillings’.

Sainsbury’s - Britain’s largest retailer of Freedom Food labelled produce – are a great example of consumer supply and demand. The supermarket giant listened to what customers were saying and has continued to increase the range of higher welfare produce on offer – including sandwiches and snacks with Freedom Food labelled meat. Now it’s about time others followed suit and consumers hold the key.

“Consumers have the power to make the difference,” says Liam Kurzeja, Freedom Food marketing manager.

The message is coming through loud and clear that consumers want morehigher welfare sandwich filling options on the shelves. Our job is to help ensure that retailers hear that message and act on it. Members can of course help by continuing to remind their customers and the retailers they may deal with of this demand for more choice. We have successfully lobbied retailers in the past by galvanising consumer opinion and we can do it again.

And with more than 11 billion sandwiches being demanded by hungry Britons each year, there is a huge opportunity for improving animal welfare in many of the fillings that make up the nation’s favourite snack.

Neil Parish, MP for Tiverton and Honiton, supported the launch of the latest campaign, saying: “We are all concerned about higher animal welfare standards, but when grabbing a convenient sandwich for lunch animal welfare is often the last thing the people think about. I urge shoppers to look for the Freedom Food logo to make sure their sandwich contains a ‘fairer filling’.”

A poll at the launch event revealed that Parliament’s favourite ‘fairer filling’ was tied between ham hock and lemon and herb chicken with 32% of parliamentarians choosing each type of sandwich. But research suggests that buying a sandwich with a fairer filling can prove a challenge and it can be difficult to find ‘food on-the-go’ that contains higher welfare products – or even labelling that details how animals have been farmed.

“Nowadays, more and more consumers are choosing higher welfare meat and eggs as part of a weekly food shop, but when it comes to making or buying a sandwich for lunch, people rarely think about animal welfare,” said Eloise Shavelar, RSPCA farm animal campaign manager. “We need our shops to provide more animal welfare friendly sandwiches and consumer demand will help influence that retail decision.”

Find out more www.rspca.org.uk/fairerfillings