Consumer purchasing eggs

Know your labels

Your food

Factory farming resulting from the rapid growth in demand for cheap meat and dairy products means farm animals experience relentless suffering.

Image credit: iStock

Reading meat and other animal product labels can be tricky because they may not always be clear. And sometimes, they are deliberately made this way.

In Australia, processed ham and bacon products are often labelled as ‘Made in Australia’, even if the ham comes from the United States or Canada, where mother pigs are cruelly confined to cramped stalls for the entire duration of their pregnancy.

Apart from meats, there are also various kinds of labels for eggs, which make it difficult to differentiate between products that come from low-welfare farming systems and high-welfare ones. 

Meat products at a supermarket

Learn about your labels

High welfare labels to look for

If you choose to eat meat and eggs, below are higher-welfare labels to look out for on your next grocery run.

Pork

Free-range pork: comes from pigs that were born and raised with free access to the outdoors.

Sow-stall free pork: comes from pigs raised in an enhanced indoor environment or a combination of indoor and outdoor.

Eggs

Barn-laid eggs: come from hens housed in a large shed where they’re able to move around, stretch, flap their wings and socialise.

Free-range eggs: come from hens that have access to the outdoors. Look for those with a maximum of 1500 hens per hectare!

Purchasing only higher-welfare animal products helps the planet, improves the lives of animals, and is better for your overall health, so make sure to look for the above-mentioned labels on your next trip to the grocery store

Jackfruit chili dish

Join the Plant Protein Challenge

You can commit to swapping meat for plant-based protein for just three days a week over 8 weeks. And we’ll be supporting you every step of the way.

Plant-based chicken burger

Read our 'Shifting the Menu' report

Read our 'Shifting the Menu' report and learn how you can reduce the carbon footprint of fast-food by switching to plant-based options.

Chick on a farm

What is the problem with factory farming chickens?

Credit image: World Animal Protection

The industry doesn’t want you to know this. But these Franken-chickens grow so aggressively fast, it causes their flesh to form more fat than their slower-growing counterparts – dropping the nutritional and protein value of their ‘meat’. All because they’ve been selectively bred by an industry who continues to profit from their pain and suffering.

Learn more