State controlled animal welfare

Danish Veal are proud to officially bear the ”Better Animal Welfare” label. This aptly named label was created in 2017 to improve animal welfare for as many production animals as possible. It was developed by the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders in the commercial food chain and is based on market driven principles.


Products sold under the label are subject to annual state control and state authorized controls. This includes control of all herds produced under the label and control of all animals at slaughterhouses. Hatcheries, farmers, companies, and retail and foodservice businesses must all have their own control programme that ensures and documents traceability and separation of labelled products from other products. These control programmes are subject to state control.

Calves are sociable by nature and at Danish Veal we don’t like the idea of a calf being left alone. Our calves always go at least two and two together, allowing them to socialize properly.

We also give them more space than the minimum requirements.

We believe in giving our calves a great start in life with better stable conditions than regular calves.

Good natural fodder composition is important for our calves’ wellbeing and growth. At Danish Veal, producers feed their calves with natural fodder such as raw milk, fresh straw or roughages - without the use of antibiotic growth promoters.

Roughage is particularly important as it encourages the natural development of a calf’s stomach’s ability to chew cud.
A shorter journey causes less stress for our animals. Danish veal calves have relatively short transport time compared to other countries, where the distances between farms and abattoirs are typically much longer - simply because the countries are larger.