FSA 2024 Slaughter Statistics Analysis
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has released the results of its 2024 slaughter sector survey. The data was collected by onsite veterinarians over a representative week from 12-18 February (ref 1).
The details of the slaughter methods for each species are in the appendices of that report from pages 36 onwards. Aggregating the data by the primary farm animal species (poultry, cattle, sheep and pigs) results in the following data table.
Table 1: Results of the FSA 2024 slaughter sector survey in England and Wales.
The “Total Animals Slaughtered” column is subdivided into 3 subtotal columns – (1) True Non-Stun, (2) Alt-Stun = Alternative Stun = WASK 1995-stun Halal (non-Annex 1)* or Post-cut stun** and (3) All Stun.
The final column on the right, “All Halal”, is the sum of everything classed as Halal (within the categories of Non-Stun, Alt-stun and All-Stun) and is thus a subset of the ‘Total Animals Slaughtered’ column.
Three key observations can be derived from the data table above and the FSA report.
- 88% of Halal slaughter is stunned
Researchers The “Total Animals Slaughtered” column is subdivided into 3 subtotal columns – (1) True Non-Stun, (2) Alt-Stun = Alternative Stun = WASK 1995-stun Halal (non-Annex 1)* or Post-cut stun** and (3) All Stun.
The final column on the right, “All Halal”, is the sum of everything classed as Halal (within the categories of Non-Stun, Alt-stun and All-Stun) and is thus a subset of the ‘Total Animals Slaughtered’ column.
familiar with the Halal industry already know that the vast majority of Halal slaughter is stunned. The “All Halal” column above shows the combined numbers of animals slaughtered Halal (both with and without stunning) totalled 4,107,688. Of these 575,658 are Halal & Kosher stun-free (“Non-Stun” column) but when you strip out the small number of stun-free Kosher animals (62,103 from the FSA report) you end up with 3,594,133, or 88%, of all Halal-slaughter, that is actually stunned. Of this 186,922 or 5% is WASK Annex 1 stunned (under Alt-stunned).
- 2.9% of animals are slaughtered without stunning
The true figure of non-stun production (Halal & Kosher) is 2.9% (percentage in red in data table) of animals slaughtered which is significantly lower than the 7.0% of the population that is Muslim or Jewish (ref 4).
- 1% of animals are slaughtered with an alternative stunning process
Some poultry is stunned in accordance with the previous WASK 1995 regulation (ref 2) and not the Annex 1 parameters of EC 1099/2009 (ref 3). The reason for poultry operators opting for WASK 1995 parameters is because the higher electrical parameters of EC 1099/2009 increase the risk of poultry death before slaughter which would render its meat Haram (non-Halal) or ineligible for the Halal market.
There are also a number of red-meat operators who stun animals after the slaughter i.e. they slaughter the animal and then apply a stun afterwards to minimise the period the animal may be conscious after the cut.
Meat Protein Consumption Market
The data confirms that the primary meat proteins consumed by Muslims are lamb and poultry, with very little beef and no pork (“All Halal” column). However, lamb and poultry animals yield significantly less kg of meat than cattle or pigs. Thus the 2.9% of animals slaughtered without stunning does not mean that 2.9% of meat consumed is from animals slaughtered without stunning. So what proportion of the overall meat market is actually non-stun?
The AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) Market Intelligence team provided meat protein consumption data for 2023 using data from Defra, IHS Maritime Trade – Global trade Atlas and HMRC. Applying the FSA’s slaughter statistics percentages (in blue in the data table) to the tonnes of meat protein consumed in 2023 yields the following data table (see table 2).
Table 2. FSA 2024 slaughter percentage data (in blue) applied to 2023 meat protein consumption data (in purple)
Thus 3.1% (percentage in red) of the meat protein consumed is from stun-free
The 2021 Census showed the Muslim population of England & Wales to be 3.9m (ref 4). Including the Jewish population this becomes 4.4m or 7.0% of the population. Much of Kosher meat ends up in the Halal market since Muslims are religiously permitted to eat Kosher.
Muslims are culturally known to consume more meat per capita than the average population.
AHDB’s Halal retail and consumption trends 2024 report (ref 5) found that the average halal shopper claimed to spend £49.20 per week on meat compared to the average claimed weekly spend in the UK of £19.46. This was attributed to the larger than average household size and the greater consumption of meat per capita.
Conclusion
Notwithstanding the factor that Muslims are considered to consume more meat than the general UK population, 3.1% of the meat protein market is stun-free compared to 7.0% of the population that is Muslim or Jewish. The data evidences that, contrary to sensational claims, there is no significant level of “over-production” of non-stun meat entering the mainstream market.
References
Ref 1: Results of 2024 FSA Slaughter Sector Survey
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farm-animals-slaughter-sector-survey-2024
Ref 2: The Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 (WASK 1995) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/contents/made
Ref 3: EC 1099/2009 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:303:0001:0030:EN:PDF
Ref 4: 2021 Census data: Religion in England & Wales https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021
Ref 5: AHDB Consumer insight: Halal retail and consumption trends 2024
https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/consumer-insight-halal-retail-and-consumption-trends-2024