As consumers increasingly demand ethically-minded foods such as “Cage Free” and “Pasture Raised”, animal welfare has become a hot-button issue in the food industry.

To assist industry with verifying animal welfare standards, on December 27, 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced a program called “USDA ISO TS 34700 Animal Welfare Assessment” under which the Agency will offer assessments of independent animal welfare standards and programs to determine if they conform to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Specification (TS) 34700 – Animal Welfare Management/General Requirements and Guidance for Organizations in the Food Supply Chain. By way of background, ISO TS 34700 applies to terrestrial animals bred or kept for the production of food or feed; it was developed to ensure that food producing animals are raised, transported and processed humanely. AMS has indicated that it will work with interested organizations to develop additional program materials including objective, transparent audit checklists. Additional information on the program is available here.

Participation in this voluntary AMS program could represent a critical marketing tool for food animal producers given the continuing consumer shift toward humanely raised, ethically-minded foods.