Current animal product labelling in the UK is inadequate for consumers who want to make welfare-informed choices, and mandatory method of production labelling would transform purchasing decisions at scale.
Animal product labelling reform is potentially one of the highest-impact policy interventions for farm animal welfare. Currently, consumers who care about welfare have no reliable way to identify method of production for most animal products without significant research effort. Voluntary certification schemes like RSPCA Assured cover a fraction of the market. Mandatory labelling - following the egg precedent - would enable information to flow through markets, allowing consumer preference for higher welfare products to create systemic purchasing incentives. Studies show that welfare labelling increases willingness to pay for higher welfare products and reduces demand for lower welfare options across the market.