Animal Welfare High on the Agenda for OSI Europe

October 21, 2020

Optimizing animal health and welfare throughout the supply chain is a key focus for OSI Europe as they prioritize establishing a sustainable supply chain, and respond to the growing consumer appetite to purchase quality food that has been produced responsibly.

A key area of focus for OSI Europe in creating a future proof sustainable supply chain, is monitoring the health and welfare of livestock within processing facilities. To help achieve this, the organisation has:

· Installed third party video auditing across all its primary processing sites

· Implemented externally recognized animal welfare training for the team working across these sites

· Identified specific animal health key performance indicators (KPI’s) which it now frequently measures

THIRD PARTY AUDITING

Auditing cameras are used throughout all of OSI Europe’s primary processing sites, and a layered monitoring strategy is in operation across all of these facilities, where direct observations are supported by CCTV recording in the abattoir.

These recordings are monitored internally by serval management tiers within OSI Europe and by a third-party specialist company.

By sourcing an external company to audit the CCTV footage, it means there is a non-biased team assessing the material who can notify the animal welfare team, and the wider business, of any problems or concerns. This then allows further investigation to take place if required, and resources to be focused in the areas where further development is needed, such as employee training or changes to the environment or infrastructure.

Animal health and welfare is a top priority across all OSI Europe’s facilities. The investment in infrastructure, and implementation of a robust monitoring strategy are vital to help drive improvements and maintain these high standards.

Alongside this, the commitment to staff to ensure they have the correct animal welfare training is paramount to add further integrity to all processes.

OUTREACH GOAL PROGRAM

OSI Europe aspire to build a strong culture internally, where all employees understand the importance of high animal welfare which can be showcased to suppliers as a best practice approach.

The company is committed to improving animal welfare and therefore want to not only drive improvement within processing plants, but also at a farm level, during transport and with suppliers. The long-term vision is to encourage supplier facilities to adopt the same high standards to help improve the sustainability of the sector, while also meeting rising consumer expectations.