Stepping up to higher standards: can a tiered system work?

An example of a current third-party certification label (FREPA) on a supermarket chicken meat product.

Whether you're an individual shopper or a food business, choosing products with higher animal welfare standards is much easier when there’s a certification label to refer to. These labels are an assurance that a product meets a particular standard.  

We want all chickens raised to the standards of the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC). But, in the meantime, the larger the market share of the BCC, the fewer chickens suffer. A tiered certification scheme may be the tool for making BCC-compliant products as visible as possible, and helping grow the number of chickens raised to a higher standard. 

Tiered certification and labelling schemes 

We know that Australians care about animal welfare and look for things like third-party certification labels to make more ethical choices. These labels are based on standards created by these third-party certifiers.  

The goal of a good animal welfare standard is to improve the way animals are farmed. This means that more companies signed up to certification schemes with higher standards, means that more animals will be raised to that higher standard. 

When it comes to opt-in certification and labelling schemes, there is a mutual benefit – the certifying body gets the improved animal welfare outcomes they want, and the companies get a market advantage by being able to prove that they have higher animal welfare standards than their competitors.  

In Australia, most animal welfare labels are binary schemes – either you get the label, or you don’t. 

If we look to international labels, many certifiers use tiers (levels or grades) to certify increasingly higher animal welfare standards. 

Tiered labels are not a new concept for Australians – for example, we have tiered certification and labelling schemes for nutrition (the Health Star Rating), and for home appliance energy and water efficiency (the Energy Rating Label and the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards schemes). 

The labels for Beter Leven, the animal welfare certification scheme by Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals (Dierenbescherming). More stars indicate higher animal welfare standards.

Animal Ask research on tiers 

Research organisation Animal Ask recently published a report by Dr Ren Ryba on how tiered certification schemes impact the market share of slower-growing chickens. This focus on breed is because it is the most significant part of the Better Chicken Commitment. 

They examined case studies of international tiered schemes where at least one tier required slower-growing breeds and where data were available on market share. 

They found that a well-designed tiered labelling scheme could reasonably be expected to achieve initial market shares of 10-25% for a higher tier requiring slower-growing chickens, with this share increasing over time. However, poorly designed and poorly promoted schemes may achieve a lower market share (e.g. 3.5% in the UK). These figures were based on analysis of existing schemes under normal market conditions in countries such as Germany, France, Denmark and the UK. 

At the higher end of the spectrum, well-designed and well-supported schemes such as Beter Leven in the Netherlands, where all tiers require slower-growing breeds, can achieve high market shares of 55-60%. 

Consumer attitudes & behaviours 

Studies also suggest that a tiered system can improve product market share overall, compared to binary labels, when compared to market share of labelled vs unlabelled products). In other words, consumers like having more choice. 

We can reasonably expect that the Australian market will respond similarly to markets in other high-income countries, so this report is a useful comparison and opportunity to learn from the successes and failures of tiered certification schemes abroad. 

A German animal welfare certification label from the Haltungsform scheme, which demonstrates good label design. The green text translates to “free-range” (literally: Paddock/Pasture).

Label design is key 

Visual design is key for a successful tiered labelling scheme. Good design makes it easy for consumers to quickly understand which level a product is certified to (and where it sits in the scheme’s tier range). When accompanied by strong marketing, this can be the difference between success and failure of a labelling scheme, regardless of other factors. 

Any product label has very limited time to capture attention and influence consumer decision-making. The report identifies the key components to successful design as: 

• Colour coding, especially when it’s symbolic e.g. a traffic-light system. 

• Simple and standardised – e.g. lettered or numbered grades. Labels must be extremely clear as to where on the tier the product sits, as shoppers are making time-limited decisions. Any descriptive text of the standard ought to be brief. 

• Brand awareness – strong marketing e.g. advertising and shelf placement. Consumers need to be told why the labelling system is important and what each tier means. 

As the point of a tiered system is to compare products, the labels must highlight some method of comparability on a scale. 

Key takeaways 

The most successful tiered certification and labelling schemes for chicken require slower-growing breeds at all tiers. Looking at mid-range performers, a new, well-designed scheme in a high-income country could expect to achieve an initial market share in the 10-25% range. This would then increase over time – all schemes evaluated in the report had a history of gradual market-share growth. 

Good design and brand awareness are critical to success of a tiered certification and labelling scheme. In other words – tiered animal welfare labels can work, but only if done well. 

At present, none of the animal welfare certification schemes used for chickens in Australia have tiers. But as it becomes clear that the Better Chicken Commitment is the benchmark for chicken welfare, these certifiers will need to decide how to incorporate it into their schemes. We hope to see them make a strong commitment to animal welfare and raise their standards entirely to meet the BCC – but introducing a tiered system may be a reasonable compromise.