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hi all

good news, i got a message via my blog this morning from the manager of Woolworths’ Poultry Department! he says he wants to contact me and “resolve any concerns”. so i sent him this email:

Thank you for responding on my blog. As you no doubt have seen by now, I have a few questions about your ‘free range’ products (although this is not just restricted to poultry).

My concern is that, because the term ‘free range’ is not legislated in South Africa (or so I believe, please correct me if I am wrong), producers and retailers may use the term as they wish, with no fear of any penalty if they do. (I have been in contact with the SA Poultry Association who has sent me the draft regulations for ‘free range’ which are apparently about to be promulgated in parliament. I have not posted this information on my blog yet, because I am waiting for SAPA to get back to me on some points). Woolworths has a little logo on its free range products, claiming they are ‘audited by independent auditors’. I wanted to find out who these auditors were.

In my correspondence with Woolworths’ customer care, they informed me that it is company policy not to divulge the details of Woolworths’ free range auditors. I find this a little strange. I would like to meet with the auditors to find out about their process, what standards must be met and what the implications are if producers or retailers don’t comply with standards.

I am sure you understand my concern as an environmentalist and consumer. If a company makes a claim on a product, it should be verifiable and transparent.

I look forward to your response to clear up the confusion on this matter. I will be posting your response on my blog for the readers who have also expressed interest in this. If you can forward my email to a colleague of yours who perhaps deals with Woolworths’ other ‘free range’ products (e.g. lamb), please do so.

although it has taken a LOT of persistence on my part to get past the Customer Care dept to someone who can really answer these questions, at last it seems all will be revealed! thanks to the readers who commented on the last post. i think it helps to get a response from producers!

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