Groceries, Animal Welfare | Rema Announces Improved Animal Welfare: “Not Animal Friendly” According to Animal Welfare Alliance

Solvinge produces the chicken that Rema 1000 sells. The chain labels the chicken with better animal welfare than “common chicken”, and the eggs are Solvinge labeled to improve animal welfare.

“When you choose Solvinge products, you can be sure the chicken has had a good time,” writes Rema 1000.

Emphasize collaboration

To support the work with animal welfare, Rema 1000 has repeatedly emphasized collaboration with the animal protection organization Dyrevernsalliansen. “Animal welfare is an important issue for Rema 1000, and since 2015 we have collaborated with the Animal Welfare Alliance,” he says in an article titled Now animal welfare is improving for laying hens.

Animal Welfare Alliance has also contributed to the development of the Solvinge products and Rema 1000 has supported the organization with financial contributions. Rema 1000 also often quotes representatives of the Animal Welfare Alliance in press releases.

Live Kleveland, communications manager and founder of the Animal Welfare Alliance, cites, among other things, the introduction of the chicken-type Hubbard at Solvinge as “incomparable good news for animal welfare on Norwegian farms.”

– Rema 1000 and Norsk Kylling took the initiative and carried out a revolution, says Kleveland in a Rema press release.

– Good animal welfare is something that concerns our customers and Hubbard of Solvinge should be the chicken of every day, said Ole Robert Reitan, CEO of Rema 1000 and chairman of the board of Norwegian Chicken, which is behind Solvinge.

– worst

However, on its own websites, the Animal Welfare Alliance criticizes Rema’s products.

Solvinge’s eggs are marked “among the worst products” in the egg category, and they turn bitter or red, which is the worst grade.

“Chickens roam freely inside. No more space is ensured than the legal minimum requirement, which is nine chickens per square meter. The food is made with the minimum requirements of the law, the minimum industry standard or additional requirements weak, ”he says.

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Chicken products, on which the Animal Welfare Alliance itself has been an advisor, are also not impressive. These get yellow faces, better than red, but worse than green. Both the eggs and chicken are stamped “unfit for animals” by the Animal Welfare Alliance.

Answer back

Despite this, Rema 1000 chicken markets better animal welfare than ‘common chicken’, and the eggs are Solvinge marked improving animal welfare.

That makes Center Party politics, Emilie Enger Mehl, react strongly. She believes the chain is helping to paint Norwegian farmers black.

– It is problematic that Rema 1000 through its commercialization creates the impression that the chicken and the eggs of other farmers are bad. It is very misleading and contributes to the black paint of Norwegian farmers, he tells Nettavisen.

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Enger Mehl emphasizes the importance of good animal welfare and believes that Rema 1000’s claims are not rooted in reality.

– This is more reminiscent of a PR stunt. The truth is that all Norwegian farmers are subject to strict requirements for raising chickens and chickens. If people want to support good animal welfare, the most important thing they can do is buy Norwegian chicken instead of buying chicken imported from other countries, says Enger Mehl.

See Rema’s answer below in the case.

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Receive criticism and praise

Live Kleveland, communications manager and founder of the Animal Welfare Alliance, tells Nettavisen that chickens are not considered animal-friendly because they haven’t been given a green smiley face.

– They must get green smiley faces to be classified as animal friendly, says Kleveland.

She emphasizes to Nettavisen that they believe that Rema’s producer, Solvinge, has better welfare for the chickens than Kiwi and Coop’s competitors.

– Solvinge is significantly better than the competition. It’s been a revolution in animal welfare, because they use a cooler breed, the Hubbard chicken, instead of Ross 308, which Coop and Norgesgruppen sell, he says.

Kleveland explains that the Hubbard chicken grows more slowly and has a better weight distribution, which means it has thighs larger than its breasts. This means that, unlike the Ross 308 chicken, it has no trouble walking as the breast is not so large that the chickens will tip forward.

– Solvinge consumes three million chickens less now than before, because they die less during production, he says.

The communications manager denies that the Animal Welfare Alliance was involved in the Solvinge eggs, which get the worst ratings.

– The only thing we have done in relation to the hens is to encourage them to cut the eggs from the cages. It has been several years since they removed it now. On the other hand, we’ve had a multi-year collaboration regarding chicken, which resulted in Solvinge’s shift to a healthier breed, says Kleveland.

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Is not sufficient

However, Rema’s chicken does not meet the criteria for receiving the Animal Welfare label. According to the Animal Welfare Alliance, the criteria are the use of a breed that grows slowly and has a healthy body, has plenty of space, receives fresh air and daylight, a natural circadian rhythm, and the opportunity to play and develop.

According to the Animal Welfare Alliance, they received one million crowns from Rema 1000 in January of this year, in support of the Animal Welfare label. As of now, September 2020, they do not have contracts with Rema 1000 or other supermarket chains.

Rema has collaborated with the Animal Welfare Alliance since 2015, according to the Rema website.

Also read: Foreign meat accusations are being heavily criticized by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority

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– It becomes insecure

Marketing professor Magne Supphellen from the Norwegian School of Management believes that it is confusing to consumers that the Animal Welfare Alliance considers Solvinge “not animal friendly”, while Solvinge says they improve animal welfare.

– It would have been much better if there was a national system in which everyone agreed and had a suitable professional base, he says.

– People become insecure because there is so much different information about animal welfare from various different actors. Most consumers expect that animal welfare is good in Norway and that it is abroad where animal welfare is poor.

Supphellen believes that there is a small group of consumers who follow this very closely, while the vast majority of consumers are more concerned with nutrition and taste.

– The effect this has on the market is limited, he emphasizes.

– Significantly improved

Through the manager of public relations and communications Calle Hägg at Rema 1000, it is Kjell Stokbakken and Kaia Andresen who have responded to Nettavisen’s questions. Among other things, we have asked them what they think of the Animal Welfare Alliance evaluations and whether, based on these, they think it is correct to announce that Solvinge chickens have better animal welfare than “normal” chickens.

– Animal welfare is an important part of Rema’s responsibility work, and we are pleased to be able to offer our customers Solvinge chicken with better animal welfare. Prior produces and protects animal welfare in the egg product that we sell in our stores under the Solvinge brand, says Andresen, who is head of social responsibility and sustainability at Rema 1000.

Kjell Stokbakken, CEO of Norsk Kylling, notes that it is important to distinguish between large chicken producers and small agricultural producers.

As a large chicken producer, Norsk Kylling og Solvinge does not meet the stricter requirements set by the Animal Welfare Alliance. Here you will find the smallest agricultural producers, he says.

He says animal welfare has increased significantly after Norwegian Chicken switched to the Hubbard chicken breed.

– The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has just released an independent report showing that animal welfare improves significantly by changing the breed, it says, explaining:

– It is not about the Norwegian farmer, but about a more active, lively and fresh breed of chickens. It lives 41 percent longer and grows 26 percent slower than the chicken commonly produced in Norway.

– World class

Stokbakken is also the one who comments on Enger Mehl’s criticisms. He believes that there is no doubt that Norwegian farmers are world class and want the best for their animals. So it was not the farmer, but the breed of chickens, that Norsk Kylling focused on when they set the goal of improving animal welfare.

– With our new breed of Hubbard chickens, we received feedback on an easier working day for farmers, with a record level of disease and mortality in the barn, says Stokbakken.

He says that farmers experience healthy chickens that grow slower, are generally healthier, and have a natural and more active behavior than the breed they used before.

– So our chicken farmers are exactly the same as before, but they switched to a breed that provides demonstrably better animal welfare. Norwegian Chicken improves animal welfare, while ensuring farmers an even more predictable and safe economy, where, among other things, we continually correct price fluctuations in feed, he says.

– After the first regular year of operation with Hubbard chicken, we are proud of the results of these measurements. We will invite Emilie Enger Mehl for a conversation to clear up misunderstandings, says Stokbakken.