The ceremony, hosted by chef, writer and broadcaster, Allegra McEvedy MBE, was supported by the European Commision with Andrea Gavinelli, head of animal welfare unit, making a speech praising the work of Compassion and the award winners.
In total, 41 awards were presented across a range of categories, including Retailer awards, the Good Egg Award, the Good Chicken Award, the Good Dairy Award, the Good Pig Award, and new for 2015, the Good Rabbit Award.
Seven foodservice and catering companies were recognised during the ceremony, including McDonald’s, Pret A Manger, KLM and the Jamie Oliver Group.
Dr. Tracey Jones, director of Food Business at Compassion in World Farming, said: “The Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards were launched in 2007 and it is great to see that after eight years there is real momentum behind them with so many high profile businesses committing to change.
“It is a real achievement by our Food Business Managers working with and supporting these companies in what can be a slow, time consuming process to make changes of this scale, sometimes across global businesses.”
McDonald’s UK and McDonald’s Netherlands were awarded a Good Egg Award for switching to free range egg ingredients across their quick service restaurants in the respective countries.
Sandwich chain Pret A Manger, was also awarded a Good Egg Award after extending the reach of its pledge to source only cage-free whole eggs, which was already implemented in the UK, to its US stores.
Restaurant business, the Jamie Oliver Group, has previously been recognised with Good Egg, Good Chicken and Good Pig awards, and can now add a Good Dairy Award to its growing list, for committing to source all milk for its UK restaurants from systems that meet the category criteria.
KLM has added a Good Egg Award to its Good Chicken Award, which was awarded in 2013. The group committed to only using cage-free eggs in their inflight food and their booklets on the food served during flights have further raised awareness of sustainable and ethical sourcing for a whole range of products.
Jones concluded: “Every year I am so impressed by, the commitment and drive of our Award winners to make genuine improvements to the lives of millions of farm animals. However, it also serves to remind me that there is still a huge amount of work to be done before a true market shift towards higher welfare food takes place.
“I’m confident the higher welfare message is spreading globally as more and more businesses realise that there is not just an ethical imperative to address farm animal welfare but a commercial one too.”