July 13, 2007

US placing more scrutiny over animal welfare and antibiotic use

Changes are afoot in the US market to put the animal production under tighter scrutiny.

Burger King has pledged to increase the volume of eggs it uses from free-ranging hens and use more pork from companies giving pigs more living space.

Significantly, Smithfield Foods Inc, the top pork producer, is hoping to provide all its pigs with pig pens instead of the cramped stalls they currently have, setting a timetable of 10 years to do so.

Later this year, Whole Foods Market Inc., the natural and organic grocery chain, plans to introduce a multitiered rating system on its meat and poultry that focuses on specific measures of animal treatment It would also post its standards online.

For chickens, Tyson, the second-largest processor in the country no longer sells any birds fed with antibiotics.

Antibiotic concerns have also prompted US authorities to ban 5 types of seafood from China unless the companies can prove an absence of harmful antibiotics in their products.

Meanwhile, the demand for organic food in rising in leaps and bounds, outstripping demand and leading an organic boom in America.