Humane Slaughter and Food Labeling

The three most widely used certified labels associated with animal welfare at the time of slaughter are: Certified Humane,  American Humane Certified, and Animal Welfare Approved. Of these, American Humane Certified and Animal Welfare Approved will not certify halal or kosher slaughter because the animals are not stunned prior to exsanguination. Certified Humane does include halal and kosher slaughter in its program.

Global Animal Partnership’s step ratings, the animal welfare rating system used by Whole Foods for their meats does not include slaughter in its program. A question you should ask as a consumer is why isn’t slaughter included?

To learn more about these issues, we suggest the following resources:

Gunther, Andrew. “‘Humane’ Food Labeling Isn’t Worth the Label It’s Printed on,” Huffington Post, 21 May 2014, link to article

Harvey, Michelle Venetucci. “Parsing the New ‘Humane’ Food Labels,” Grist, 22 January 2011, link to article