Over the past two years, plant-based food consumption has grown by 49% across the EU, reaching a total sales volume of €3.6 billion.
Changes in UK assurance standards affect halal poultry
2025-05-15
The halal market is expected to become more difficult for egg producers after changes to Freedom Foods regulations come into force in October 2018. Freedom Foods is set to revise its standards in October.
Freedom Food – the RSPCA's guaranteed standard – introduced revised standards on October 7 this year and anyone selling their eggs must adhere to the Freedom Food label.
The amendments to the code introduce a clause requiring producers to use Freedom Food Approved hens at the end of their production at slaughterhouses from October 2018.
This means that slaughtering methods in RSPCA-approved abattoirs may not be halal.
Mia Fernyhough, RSPCA's senior scientific director, told UK Farming that RSPCA standards require that birds be killed by gas in approved slaughterhouses, except in certain circumstances. These include emergencies, such as to prevent an outbreak of an infectious disease, or as a fallback if approved systems fail. Halal and Kosher require that animals be slaughtered in a specific manner according to religious principles.
The method of slaughter requires the animal's throat to be cut with a knife, although other interpretations exist, such as whether the animal is stunned before being killed.
This requirement is unacceptable under some Halal interpretations and will also affect the market for hens.
Mia said that RSPCA requires animals to be anesthetized before slaughter.
Freedom Food (RSPCA Guaranteed) is the RSPCA's ethical food label for farm animal welfare.
"The RSPCA's welfare standards will not change as a result of this," Mia said. "It previously required the animals to be killed by gas."
Now it is required that all members must comply with the Freedom Food standards after the changes, and slaughterhouses must comply with Freedom Food's rules and welfare rules in the future.
The new standard stipulates that all hens must be sent to slaughterhouses approved by Freedom Foods for slaughter, and the certificate of slaughter in the specified slaughterhouse must be retained.
The Free Food Centre also recommends that hens be sent to a regulated slaughterhouse for slaughter before the new rules come into effect in October 2018.
Animal welfare inevitably features in the extensive revision of liberal food standards, which include changes covering a wide range of different aspects of management at the commercial level.