IAWS: Continuous improvement and innovation tool
The Spanish white pork sector is a sector that seeks proactively to adapt to possible changes in legislation and thus improve in order to be the first one to make these changes, allowing it to progress and commit itself as an innovative sector.
Through the seal "WELFARE COMMITMENT CERTIFIED", the operators guarantee the good practices carried out not only in animal welfare, but also in food safety, animal handling, animal health, and biosecurity, being the first seal in animal welfare which performs a more global and holistic approach interrelating all these matters with each other.
The Scientific Committee of experts in animal welfare provides the scientific component and evaluates and decides on any modification to be applied to the Animal Welfare and Biosafety Technical Regulation INTERPORC ANIMAL WELFARE SPAIN (IAWS). In this way, including requirements that belong to national and European regulations as well as others that go further and are more demanding, it becomes a dynamic regulation and a tool for continuous improvement based on scientific principles.
The IAWS Technical Regulation establishes a series of requirements beyond legislation, establishing itself as an evolutionary and independent certification that demands the highest standards in animal welfare. Among those, there are also some that go ahead of national regulations such as the installation of a surveillance system in slaughterhouses or the implementation of more demanding biosecurity measures.
Slaughterhouses that wish to obtain the certificate must install a continuous image recording system in the areas where live animals are found (unloading area, lairage, restraining area, post-stunning, and slaughter), in order to supervise aspects related to animal welfare and guarantee the existence of good practices. As a consequence, a positive effect is generated on the safety and control of one of the areas where the welfare of the animals must be protected, guaranteeing that the animals are checked and enjoy optimal welfare until the end of the production process.
Regarding farms, in the latest update of the regulation, the presence of showers or an equivalent system using personal hygiene products is mandatory. This measure encourages farms to adapt prior to the application of this legislative requirement, and so, increasing the level of biosecurity in order to avoid the entry and transmission of pathogens, and protecting consequently the health and welfare of animals as much as possible.
All in all, this seal shows the commitment of the Spanish white pork sector towards consumers to become a proactive sector that undergoes a constant evolution and improvement, in order to guarantee good practices in the care and handling of animals, and certifying with demand and seriousness a complete traceability "from farm to fork".
For further information, please check our website: https://www.bienestaranimalcertificado.com/animal-welfare-certified/
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