Fundamentals of animal welfare in meat animals and consumer attitudes to animal welfare

The science of animal welfare has made significant advances in understanding the feelings of animals in production and proposing a variety of novel practices to create a fair balance between animal needs, production costs and consumers’ requirements. Nowadays consumers base their buying decisions on their personal perceptions of value, resulting from a balance between price and quality and differences in social, cultural and educational status. The lack of knowledge about livestock production practices and their impact on animal welfare and meat quality also explains the poor consciousness in large part of meat consumers worldwide. The numerous iniatitives of the food supply chain in response to the consumer requirements for improved animal welfare are having the most visible influence on their purchase behaviour. However, they are also creating them some confusion due to lack of transparency and completeness of information through specific product labelling at the retail level.