Mary tucks into "fairer filling" with the RSPCA

Wakefield MP and Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh attended the launch of the RSPCA’s ‘Fairer Fillings campaign’ on 18th May to support the charity’s call for people to consider animal welfare when buying or making their lunch.

The Fairer Filings campaign encourages the public to swap their usual lunch with at least one lunch during the week that contains higher welfare ingredients.

Animal welfare is becoming an increasing priority for food shoppers and retailers are providing new ranges of higher welfare produce all the time. Nowadays, many consumers will choose to buy higher welfare bacon or a free-range chicken as part of a weekly food shop, but when it comes to making or buying a sandwich for lunch, people rarely think about animal welfare.

In Britain we eat over 11 billion sandwiches every year with more than half being made at home. The RSPCA’s Fairer Filling’s campaign is seeking to raise awareness of what people put into their daily sandwich. Whatever filling is their favourite, shoppers are being encouraged to think about the conditions the animals have lived in.

To be sure that the animals have been reared on farms inspected to RSPCA standards, consumers should look for the Freedom Food logo. If consumer can’t find a RSPCA Freedom Food sandwich, other useful terms to look for include: barn (eggs only), outdoor bred or outdoor reared (pig meat only), free-range or organic.

Mary visited the RSPCA’s parliamentary ‘Fairer Filings sandwich stall’ for lunch and tried her favourite Freedom Food sandwich, kindly provided by Sainsbury’s who are the UK’s largest retailer of Freedom Food. A poll taken at the event found that Parliament’s favourite ‘fairer filling’ was tied between ham hock, and lemon and herb chicken with 32% of parliamentarians choosing each type of sandwich. However, a wide range of ‘fairer fillings’ are available for shoppers to choose from including chicken, egg, fish, ham, bacon and beef.

At the event Mary said:

“We are all concerned about higher animal welfare standards, but when grabbing a convenient sandwich for lunch animal welfare is often the last thing the people think about. It is great that so many higher welfare food options are now available for people to choose from and I urge shoppers to look for the Freedom Food logo to make sure their sandwich contains a ‘fairer filling’.”

• The RSPCA Fairer Fillings campaign held a lunch and photo call for MPs outside Parliament on 18 May 2011.

• MPs picked from a range of Fairer Filings including: ham hock, honey roast salmon, lemon & herb chicken salad and egg & cress; and voted for their favourite ‘fairer’ sandwich filling.

• The Freedom Food logo on a pack of fish, meat or eggs means that the animal has been reared at each stage of its life to the RSPCA’s strict welfare standards. Every stage of the life of the animal is inspected and only if every stage meets the standards can the logo be used on pack. It’s an independent scheme, and aims to improve the lives of as many farm animals as possible, whether they are kept indoors or outdoors.

• The sandwiches for the event were kindly provided by Sainbury’s.

For further details on the RSPCA Fairer Fillings campaign please contact the RSPCA press office on 0300 123 0244 or visit www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaigns/fairerfillings