Pork labelling systems vary dramatically between countries, with most consumers unable to determine the welfare conditions under which the pork they purchase was produced.
Pork welfare labelling is a market failure where consumer demand for welfare information is not matched by supply of reliable, standardised labels. Most pork is sold without welfare information; what labels exist are often inconsistent, unverified, or use terms without welfare meaning. The result is that consumers who would pay for welfare-positive pork cannot reliably identify it. Mandatory, standardised welfare labelling systems -- building on the model of European egg labelling by production system -- would enable welfare preferences to translate into market signals. The political barrier is industry resistance to the transparency that welfare labelling would require.