Lidl Switzerland is the first retailer in Switzerland to label its meat products with an animal welfare rating from the Swiss animal welfare organisation STS.
The packaging will come with four tiers of rating, and the retailer hopes the addition of an animal welfare rating label on meat products will guide shoppers' decision-making processes.
Factors included in the evaluation scheme include the living conditions applied to the animals, how and why are drugs/antibiotics are used, and how the animals are transported and slaughtered.
Products following the best animal welfare procedures will receive a green 'A' rating on their packaging, with the lowest scoring products receiving an orange 'D' rating.
Transparency
Andreas Zufelde, chief commercial and marketing officer, Lidl Switzerland, said the retailer has allowed shoppers "an opportunity to easily, quickly, and consciously decide to buy an item and thus create more transparency when it comes to animal welfare."
Zufelde says Lidl Switzerland is proud to work with STS, who "challenge us further in terms of animal welfare."
Elsewhere, Cesare Sciarra, managing director of the Swiss Animal Welfare Competence Center, welcomed the decision to add animal welfare labelling to products, as it offers "customers the opportunity to make more conscious decisions."
The new labelling will be available on fresh meat products and in all 150 branches across Switzerland from spring 2021.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
