Best Innovation Award: Hilton Seafood UK
Hilton Seafood UK took home a Special Recognition Award within the Best Innovation Award category.
The company was recognised for being the first to commercially trial and adopt an electric stunner for warm water whiteleg shrimp, or King Prawns, making for a more humane method of slaughter than the usual thermal stunning by immersion in ice slurry.
In addition to the welfare benefits it provides, which includes less handling and crowding of the prawns, it provides a more effective and consistent stun, which reduces labour during harvest, while not being detrimental to product quality, noted CIWF. “The system, which has been approved and rolled out across the Hilton/Tesco supply chain, will benefit more than 100 million animals in its first year.”
CIWF’s Dr Jones noted: “The sentience of crustaceans is often overlooked and in the absence of any legislation or standards, this electric stunner for shrimp, pioneered by Hilton Seafood, has the potential to benefit billions of animals if adopted more widely across the industry.”
Other awards winners include LDC group’s Nature d’Eleveurs, who took home a Good Rabbit Commendation for its commitment to higher welfare, cage-free rabbit production, and Italian healthy bakery treats brand Galbusera, who received a Good Egg Award this year for extending its cage-free commitment to exclude combination systems within the next five years.
Image source: GettyImages/robynmac
