Farm assurance schemes provide welfare certification but vary enormously in how far they go beyond legal minimum requirements, with consumers often assuming equivalence between schemes.
Consumer understanding of different assurance schemes is generally poor, with many assuming that any assurance mark provides similar welfare guarantee. In practice, schemes vary from those that add little to minimum legal requirements to those that specify genuinely higher welfare standards with meaningful audit processes. Learning the difference between schemes and choosing those with genuinely higher welfare standards rewards producers who go beyond minimum compliance.