Communication barrier needs to be overcome in meat industry

By Aidan Fortune

- Last updated on GMT

Communication barrier needs to be overcome in meat industry

Related tags Spain Interporc Pork Processing and packaging Innovation

The issue of how the meat industry communicates to consumers has been highlighted at an event in Spain.

The director of Spanish pork trade body INTERPORC Alberto Herranz urged the necessity to convey to society “the work that the pig sector does in matters such as environmental care environment, animal welfare or innovation, among other aspects that concern citizens, and therefore intensifying our communication is a challenge to face as a priority for the entire sector”.

Speaking at the VI International Forum of the Pig Sector in Madrid, organized by INTERPORC, he said that “communicating is key to strengthen our image before public opinion and if we have great values ​​such as our work in animal welfare we must tell it”.

Herranz explained that the sector has taken another step to reach the consumer with the creation of the ‘Certified Wellness Commitment’ seal which “consumers will recognize meat and products in the supermarket lines of pigs that have been produced under the most demanding requirements of the European Union in animal welfare and biosecurity”​.

In his speech, Herranz also broke down other challenges facing the sector. In the production process, he pointed out, “it is in our hands to adapt to the new demands of society to maintain our commitment to it in aspects such as animal health, sustainability, or innovation”.

INTERPORC president Antonio Del Barrio also stressed about the challenge communication is to the meat industry. “We have to know how to communicate to society what we do in our farms, transport and industries, because it is unknown and it is a challenge that we have to overcome.”

Del Barrio called for the entire sector to “communicate what we do, from the inside out, to reach the whole society”​ and said that the sector has to “continue innovating to meet the challenges and demands that we demand the society”.

Juan Pascual, vice president of the DACH zone and the Southern European Area for ELANCO, spoke out about the narratives of traditional and lab-grown meat.

He said that the industry in favour of laboratory meat is positioning “its competition as something unreliable with messages such as laboratory meat has no hormones”​.

“Spanish meat does not have hormones or antibiotics, but affirming that the laboratory does not have them, there is doubt about the whole sector, so it is necessary to explain the reality of the meat and its benefits,”​ he said.

Pascual added that laboratory meat is, today, “an experimental reality”​ with many barriers: techniques, cost; environmental and regulatory.

Related topics Meat

Related news

Show more

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars