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Study on the stunning/killing practices in slaughterhouses and their economic, social and environmental consequences

Report for the European Commission (DG SANCO), October 2007

The European Commission is in the process of revising Directive 93/119/EC which covers slaughter practices. DG SANCO commissioned this study to present a socio-economic overview of the situation of the red meat and poultry sectors in the EU with regards to the protection of animals at the time of slaughter. The poultry meat study was conducted Agra CEAS Consulting of the Food Chain Evaluation Consortium

The full report can be downloaded at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/welfare/slaughter/slaughter_econostudy_en.htm

The main conclusions are as follows:

• The EU poultry sector is relatively uncompetitive in global terms and is likely to be sensitive to increases in production cost. However, the cost of stunning and killing is not seen by the industry as being significant in this context and this is borne out by the analysis in this report.

• There are two main slaughter methods in use: electrical water bath stunning and controlled atmosphere stunning. The proportion of slaughterhouses using each system is unknown, but electrical techniques are more prevalent. The number of controlled atmosphere plants in the EU is at least 25.

• Equipment design to ensure good animal welfare has positive economic impacts, although the extent to which these offset costs is not always clear. This is also the case with regard to measures to safeguard animal welfare. Slaughterhouses will adopt animal welfare friendly designs and measures which go beyond legislative requirements in order to gain advantage from the economic benefits whether these are simply better revenues or in order to conform with customer requirements which ensures access to certain markets. Customer requirements are driven by product quality and, in some parts of the EU at least, demand for high animal welfare standards.

• A survey of Member State Competent Authorities made clear that the situation regarding training and certification of slaughterhouse operators differs according to Member State . Some require formal training and the issuing of licenses or certificates of competence whilst others rely on slaughterhouses themselves to ensure that staff are competent to deal with live animals. The survey of slaughterhouses showed that the vast majority ensure that employees dealing with live animals have received appropriate training. In some cases voluntary training takes place in addition to mandatory training.

• Information gathered during the course of this research suggests that the additional purchase, installation and running costs associated with controlled atmosphere systems can be recovered fairly quickly as a result of the financial advantages stemming from improved output yield and quality.

• The small proportion of consumer price that is accounted for by the cost of stunning means that more expensive methods, such as controlled atmosphere stunning, are unlikely to have any appreciable impact on the final consumer price for poultry.