Our Animals

Processing and Handling

The welfare of livestock, poultry, and aquaculture in our production facilities is regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock / Federal Inspection Service (MAPA/SIFI) in Brazil, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Meat Inspection, Buenas Prácticas Pecuarias en Producción de Pollo de Engorda de SADER y SENASICA, Council Regulation N˚1099/2009, Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines and Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production and Transportation of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption, dependent on region and protein.

Animal welfare responsibilities are managed by our Animal Welfare and Food Safety and Quality Assurance teams. Every facility has a full-time Quality Assurance Manager, Animal Welfare Manager, Animal Welfare Officer (AWO), veterinarian, or access to a regional team member who is responsible for overseeing the implementation of our animal welfare program, which includes facility assessment, training programs and ongoing monitoring.

In the U.S., Brazil and Canada, these team members are humane handling specialists certified by the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO).
In Australian cattle, smallstock and pork processing facilities, they are trained according to industry AWO skills and are Australia Livestock Processing Industry Animal Welfare Certification System (AAWCS) approved auditor.
Huon has central and regional fish health teams that advocate for and oversee health, welfare, and biosecurity across all sites. Huon is the only seafood producer in Australia to hold RSPCA certification, which includes fish welfare during harvest operations.
In our Moy Park poultry facilities, they are certified through Animal Welfare Training Ltd., and all personnel handling chickens must have a certificate of competency (COC). This is an assessed qualification issued by the regional regulatory authorities: Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Great Britain or the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland.
In our Pilgrim’s UK pork facilities, they are accredited according to Bristol University or Livestockwise.
Other animal welfare certifications include Global GAP and Certified Humane, for our Seara operations; Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) certification, for our Pilgrim's UK and Huon operations; and the National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS), for our Australian feedlot operations.

In addition, each production facility has team members from animal handling, processing, quality assurance, operations, procurement, and human resources who work to ensure that the policies and procedures required by their animal welfare programs, including annual training of all team members, are being correctly implemented and followed.

We have a zero-tolerance policy for abuse of any kind, and all team members are required to report any violations, either anonymously through our Ethics Line or directly to management. Team members or family farm and ranch partners who violate our Animal Welfare Policy and associated procedures are subject to disciplinary action including termination of employment, termination of contract and/or reporting to the government authority responsible for overseeing animal welfare.

Training

All new JBS team members in relevant roles receive department-specific animal welfare training during orientation, and all team members who handle animals must attend annual refresher trainings. Appropriate management teams make sure that all training requirements are completed as scheduled, documented, and available for review.

Audits

Production facilities are audited regularly to guarantee compliance with our animal welfare programs. Quality assurance personnel conduct daily audits to verify adherence to each country’s respective compliance program, depending on the protein. Government inspectors also monitor animal welfare practices daily to guarantee compliance with regulations.

Production facilities typically undergo third-party animal handling audits atleast annually. If a deficiency is identified, immediate corrective action is taken, and internal follow-up audits are scheduled until the issue is resolved. We share corrective action strategies across the company so that all facilities can benefit from new knowledge and perspectives to drive continuous improvement in our approach to animal welfare.

In addition, we have implemented video auditing systems in many of our production facilities, which allow us to conduct real-time internal auditing from a viewing room and provide team members with immediate feedback for improvement. Our video footage is audited remotely by our animal welfare team and/or an independent third party. These independent reviews are designed to verify our ongoing commitment to best practices in animal handling and include alerts and daily summaries to facilities for process improvement.

	Australia	Brazil	United States and Canada	Europe**	Mexico
% of internal animal welfare audits passed	Beef, Pork, and Lamb: 100% Aquaculture: Huon is implementing internal animal welfare audits across all sites in 2023	Beef: 100% Chicken and Pork: 100%	Beef: 97.9% Pork: 100% Live Pork: 92.4% Chicken: 100%	Chicken: 100% Pork and Lamb: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by Red Tractor and RSPCA	Chicken: 100%
% of third-party animal welfare audits passed	Beef, Pork, and Lamb: 100% Aquaculture: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by RSPCA at Huon sites	Beef: 100% Chicken and Pork: 88%*	Beef: 100% Pork: 100% Live Pork: 100% Chicken: 100%	Chicken: 100% Pork and Lamb: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by Red Tractor and RSPCA	Chicken: 100%
% of third-party animal welfare audits passed on the first attempt	Beef and Lamb: 89% Pork: 100% Aquaculture: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by RSPCA at Huon sites	Beef: 100% Chicken and Pork: 99%	Beef: 100% Pork: 100% Live Pork: 100% Chicken: 100%	Chicken: 100% Pork and Lamb: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by Red Tractor and RSPCA	Chicken: 100%
% of third-party transportation audits passed	Beef, Pork, and Lamb: N/A Aquaculture: 100%	Beef: 100% Chicken and Pork: 100%	Beef: 100% Pork: 100% Live Pork: N/A Chicken: N/A	Chicken: 100% Pork and Lamb: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by Red Tractor and RSPCA	Chicken: 100%
% third-party transportation audits passed on the first attempt	Beef, Pork, and Lamb: N/A Aquaculture: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by RSPCA	Beef: 100% Chicken and Pork: 100%	Beef: 100% Pork: 100% Live Pork: N/A Chicken: N/A	Chicken: 99.9% Pork and Lamb: N/A to the style of auditing conducted by Red Tractor and RSPCA***	Chicken: 100%

*Only 26 plants were audited

**Does not include Pilgrim's Food Masters

***Red Tractor and RSCPA audits allow hauliers 28 days to satisfactorily apply corrective actions to any non-compliances raised during their audits before being classed as a fail.

Case Studies

In 2022, Huon Aquaculture continued to be the only RSPCA-certified Australian seafood producer. This ongoing partnership with the RSPCA allows for a focus on continuous improvement and enhanced welfare standards of fish. Each year, RSPCA evaluates Huon’s sites and farming practices, including freshwater and marine grow-out locations, against 400 detailed animal welfare standards. because animal welfare is a priority to Huon.

Over the past several years as salmon consumption has increased, so has the desire for consumers to know more about the salmon that they are eating. By continuing to maintain RSPCA approval, animal welfare is front-of-mind for our staff and builds consumer confidence that fish welfare needs are met.
Achieving and maintaining this accreditation hasn’t happened overnight—we have worked closely with the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme over many years to meet their high standards, and it is something that everyone working for Huon has been instrumental in achieving.

In Australia, JBS processing plants set and met an aggressive key performance indicator (KPI) for using less than 10% prodding when handling cattle.

This is significantly below the industry standard of 25% in Australia, demonstrating our commitment to ensure the animals under our care are moved through the processing system according to industry best practices and methodologies.