Unox

**As of September 2017 Unilever has made an overarching commitment to meet Compassion's 'better' standard for broiler welfare. Unox will now be meeting specific requirements as of 2024 in line with their European broiler welfare commitments. Full details from Unilever are here: https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/what-matters-to-you/farm-animal-welfare.html?1=5 **

"As leaders of the biggest meat brand in The Netherlands we feel responsible for animal welfare in our business. Besides that, it is more and more relevant for our consumers and therefore for our business. More and more consumers worry about what is happening with their food in the food manufacturing industry and how we treat animals.

As the 6th biggest retail brand, it is crucial for Unox to make sure consumers trust us and our products. Furthermore, we find animal welfare a very important topic personally. We are in a position where we can make a difference and it is great to be actually doing so.

Unox has made the commitment to move all our meat to at least 1 star level of Dutch animal Welfare organization in 2020. This award is for moving to 1 star meat for our Beef Smoked Sausage. In 2012 we have launched a 2 start free range pork sausage and moved 60% of our regular smoked sausage portfolio to 1 start meat. In 2013 we have also moved to free range chicken meat (1 star) in our cooked sausages and ragout. 80% of our smoked sausage portfolio (mainly pork meat) is already at 1 start level.

The move to Better Life meat has brought competitive advantage on shelf and has improved our reputation as a responsible and leading brand. Most important though is the intrinsic motivation it brings to our team; the commitment to improve animal welfare has given us a very inspirational purpose. In terms of our future welfare strategy there is still lots of work to be done to get our total portfolio to the 1 star level. Much more supply is needed to cover the rest of our portfolio so there is still a lot of potential to improve the life of many more animals.

For Unox winning this prestigious award is a great acknowledgement of the hard work so far and a stimulation to take the necessary and important next steps for the remainder of our portfolio."

Aleksander Fiege, Marketing Director - Unilever Benelux (2013)

"Farm Animal Welfare has been one of Unilever's core sustainable agriculture indicators since 2005.We recognize that many consumers do have concerns about animal welfare and we take these concerns seriously. We have several ongoing initiatives which include free-range eggs in Hellmann's mayonnaise and the Ben & Jerry's Caring Dairy programme that sources milk for our ice cream. We implement our sustainable sourcing plan over a number of years in order to allow our suppliers to adapt to our animal welfare requirements.

As Global Issue Leader Animal Welfare I have ensured that we work on the basis of a global corporate policy for farm animal welfare. I have initiated the roll-out for eggs and dairy ingredients into other regions and have started the work on meat sourcing. Animal Welfare is included in the Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code. This code covers practices that all our suppliers should strive to achieve. We encourage our suppliers to participate in initiatives to improve animal welfare standards in the countries and/or regions where they are sourcing and processing products from animal origin. Consumers recognize our work on sustainable sourcing and the response on our animal welfare initiatives has been positive. Our ambition is to purchase all our animal-derived ingredients from sustainable sources, taking into account the different regional perceptions and adequate supply.

Working together with our suppliers and organizations like Compassion in World Farming will help us to deliver the results we aim for. Happy cows and happy chickens are part of our future!"

Willem-Jan Laan, Director Global External Affairs (2012)