Schoolchildren and hospital patients may be eating from ‘low welfare menus’ containing food imports of meat reared to lower standards than the UK, the RSPCA has warned.
The charity said the Government’s Buying Standards (GBS) needed a ‘major overhaul’ to ensure food from imports provided in public sector institutions was produced to higher standards.
The GBS benchmark for animal welfare is currently set ‘very low’. The RSPCA noted, and in sectors such as eggs, meat and chicken, welfare standards were set ‘no higher than the baseline’.
It warned that low welfare imports could undercut UK farmers.