Animal Welfare and Wellness

Help ensure the health and wellness of farm animals at every stage of life as well as compliance to animal welfare guidelines. We offer a full suite of services, including auditing and certification, standard development, label claim verification, traceability, chain of custody verification, sustainability and, separately, training and education.

We bring global expertise to the local level and support businesses of any size. To provide confidence in your supply chain, we can help your farmers and suppliers — no matter the size — comply as well so they can continue supporting you.

Many companies with global supply chains must work through a patchwork of local and regional approaches to demonstrate their commitment to animal wellness. The NSF Global Animal Wellness Standards (GAWS) help companies manage their risk through a common, globally applicable approach.

GAWS are the industry’s premier assurance of a strong, consistent animal wellness management system for the entire protein supply chain. The standards take a holistic approach to animal wellness aligned with the Five Freedoms principles, but go above and beyond to include the environment, physical conditions and the social and emotional well-being of the animals. The GAWS standards are directly aligned with international standards (ISO/TS 34700; OIE).

Our standards offer three tiers of compliance -- from entry level to advanced management systems -- and cover production, transport, assembly and slaughter for all key species including:

• Beef
• Dairy
• Small ruminants
• Pig
• Hatchery
• Meat poultry
• Egg-laying poultry

We also provide certification, supply chain assurance and second- and third-party auditing for many global animal welfare standards in the beef, bison, goat, sheep, swine, dairy, poultry and layer (egg) industries including:

Industry Standards

• U.S.: National Chicken Council (NCC), North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and National Turkey Federation (NTF)
• Canada: BC Egg Marketing Board, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Canadian Mink Breeders Association, Chicken Farmers of Canada, Egg Farmers of Canada, Egg Farmers of Ontario and Turkey Farmers of Canada

Certification Schemes

• American Humane Association
• Raised Without Antibiotics
• Animal Welfare for Religious Slaughter: Red Meat Module
• Genesis GAP
• Animal Welfare for Religious Slaughter: Poultry Module
• Beef Pathogen Control programme - E. coli 0157:h7 (N60)
• Cross-species contamination
• NSF standards and audits

In addition, we perform claim verification for animal production as well as supply chain management, client proprietary animal welfare audits, and traceability and chain of custody verification.

You can save time and money by bundling animal welfare services with other food safety certifications such as the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and Raised Without Antibiotics.