How your voice can improve farmed animal welfare through higher welfare food

The Ask your supermarket page on the RSPCA Assured website makes it easy to let supermarkets, restaurants and recipe box companies know you’d like them to stock and use products from RSPCA Assured member farms.

As an animal welfare academic, I’ve spent my career working on projects that explore how farming systems can be improved to support animals’ health, behaviour and overall quality of life.

I’ve worked closely with farmers, vets, policymakers and food businesses on animal welfare standards and assurance schemes, including those designed to improve welfare across the UK food system.

Research consistently shows that higher welfare farming standards lead to better outcomes for farmed animals. But evidence alone doesn’t drive change. Consumer demand plays a crucial role – which is why using your voice really matters.

In short: when consumers ask for RSPCA Assured-labelled food, businesses are more likely to invest in higher welfare farming, potentially improving the lives of millions more animals.

Why consumer demand matters for animal welfare

Food businesses listen to their customers. When people actively ask for higher welfare products, it helps shape sourcing policies and long-term commitments.

Through my work with farmers, vets, policymakers and food businesses across the UK, one message comes up again and again: clear customer demand gives businesses the confidence to invest in higher welfare farms.

When large numbers of people ask for RSPCA Assured-labelled products, it sends a strong, measurable signal that animal welfare matters in shopping decisions – not just price or convenience.

What RSPCA Assured means for farmed animals

Around a quarter of all UK farmed animals – including salmon – are reared to the RSPCA’s higher welfare standards under the independent RSPCA Assured scheme.

This means tens of millions of animals are living better lives, with more space, enrichment and the freedom to move around, dustbathe, perch or forage.

How welfare standards are checked

RSPCA Assured assessors regularly check more than 4,000 members to ensure they’ve met an average of 760 different standards, all designed to improve the lives of farmed animals.

Members must meet these standards before joining the scheme, and compliance is ongoing.

If a farm fails to meet the compulsory standards, it can receive a formal warning, suspension or be removed from the scheme entirely. In those cases, food from that farm can no longer be marketed as RSPCA Assured.

How asking businesses helps animals

The Ask your supermarket page is a simple way to let supermarkets, restaurants and recipe box companies know that you want to buy RSPCA Assured-labelled food.

By speaking up, you help to:

• increase demand for higher welfare farming
• support farmers who invest in better animal welfare
• encourage long-term improvements across the food system.

Even small actions can contribute to meaningful change when many people take part. Your voice really does matter.

About the author

Professor David Main is deputy vice-chancellor and professor of production animal health and welfare at the Royal Agricultural University.

A vet by training, he has dedicated his career to improving farm animal welfare through research, education and practical welfare assessment strategies.

David’s work spans knowledge exchange, welfare outcome assessment and welfare improvement strategies at farm, sector and policy levels.

He has led collaborative projects such as AssureWel – introducing welfare outcomes into certification schemes – and the Healthy Feet Project, now widely adopted across the UK dairy industry.

He has also served on important advisory and governance bodies, including the government’s Farm Animal Welfare Committee.