This autumn Petersham Nurseries Cafe has signed up to support Freedom Food`s Simply Ask campaign.

Simply Ask is a new campaign from Freedom Food urging people to think about where their food has come from when they eat out.

Simply Ask is initially focussing on whole eggs used for cooking in restaurants, cafes and pubs.  This is because the proportion of UK barn, free-range and organic eggs produced for retail has increased dramatically in the last decade (from 12% to 42%) yet the food service industry as a whole has not yet made the same change.  In 2008 about 80% of the eggs used in food service and in ready-made products still came from caged hens.

Petersham Nurseries Cafe is one of the restaurants that does only use free-range organic eggs, which is why we are backing the Simply Ask campaign.

New research has revealed that 34 per cent of consumers are now more likely to let farm animal welfare concerns influence what restaurant they eat  in compared  to five years ago.*

Freedom Food is the RSPCA’s farm assurance and food labelling scheme – the only UK farm assurance scheme to focus solely on improving farm animal welfare.

Freedom Food was set up by  the RSPCA 15 years ago. Its  first member  in 1994 was a  laying hen  farm  in Tring, Hertfordshire.   These days,  the vast majority of UK alternative egg producers (barn and free-range) are approved by Freedom Food.

Freedom  Food  assessors  inspect  farms  against  strict  RSPCA  welfare  standards.  Only  when  all  of  the  standards  are  met  can  a  producer  become  a  member  of Freedom Food.

The Freedom Food scheme covers every stage of a  farm animal’s  life  from birth  to slaughter.  Each  stage  is  governed  by  strict  and  compulsory  RSPCA  welfare standards. So not only do we  inspect  farms against  the RSPCA welfare standards, but  we  also  check  the  animals  are  handled,  transported  and  slaughtered  to  the RSPCA’s standards too.

*All  figures, unless otherwise stated, are  from YouGov Plc.   Total sample size was 2017 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 22nd - 24th April 2009.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).