You’ve probably heard about the growing UK trend for reducing our reliance on animal-based foods.

The benefits of cutting down are many; research suggests it can have a positive effect on your health (particularly on blood pressure, cholesterol and your risk of heart disease), it can save you money (a mainly meat based diet is costly), and it is better for both the farmers and animals involved.

Cutting down on meat?

Reducing the amount of meat, fish, eggs and dairy you eat does not, of course, mean you have to cut them from your diet entirely.

In fact, while almost two-fifths of the UK (38%) are actively cutting-down, our research revealed that 80% of us don’t intend to go vegetarian or vegan*.

The key is balance - animal-based foods can

form an important part of a healthy diet but it’s vital to ensure that when you do eat them, you choose products with higher welfare standards.

What does higher welfare mean and why does it matter? At RSPCA Assured,  it means farm animals have been cared for to strict RSPCA welfare standards.

What makes RSPCA Assured different

These include things like giving animals a comfortable and spacious place to live, with things to engage them and keep them active, such as objects for chickens to peck at and perch on and plenty of straw for pigs to root around. It also means they are given a healthy diet, and of course are treated with respect.

This matters because animals are intelligent, sentient beings and the more active and healthier they are, the better their quality of life.

With almost a billion of them - and many millions of fish - farmed for food each year in the UK, we have a responsibility to look after 

them properly.  

What’s more, research cited in a recent report by Eating Better suggests high welfare products have higher levels of beneficial nutrients such as omega-3, iron and conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs). The latter of which has even been linked to playing a role in the prevention of cancers.

So not only can high welfare be better for you, as well as the animals, but it also supports a culture in which we truly value our food and the people who make it.

Support British farmers

By choosing higher welfare products - such as those labelled RSPCA Assured - you are helping support hard-working British farmers and secure the future of the industry in the run-up to Brexit.

If we all stop buying low quality, low welfare

animal products, and replace them in our shopping baskets with a mix of veggie alternatives and higher welfare meat, fish, eggs and dairy we can help make a big change. You can help by encouraging your local supermarkets to stock higher welfare products via our quick and easy online form. 

Download free recipe book

If you’re already taking steps to cut down, or are interested in finding out more, check out our new campaign; eat less,eat better. We have a host of information to help you make the change including a recipe book, meal planner and advice on where to buy RSPCA Assured products in your area.

* RSPCA Assured commissioned England Marketing to conduct a nationally representative online survey of 3,000 UK adults in October 2017 to better understand 

the trend for people reducing their meat, fish, eggs and dairy consumption.

The research looked in detail at the motives and unique drivers of conscious and unconscious reducetarians and included interviews with these two groups of consumers