The purest meat on the planet

Atria veterinarian Taneli Tirkkonen was a visiting lecturer at the m/s Finlandia Nordic Tastes at the Baltic Sea Academy. He spoke about the background to the work that has allowed these important goals to be achieved.

Tirkkonen notes that antibiotic-free meat production in Finland is first-class. Finnish pigs fare very well in comparison to the conditions other pigs are in elsewhere in the EU. Pigs in Finland have a great deal of space where they can roam about, they eat at the same time and their tails are completely intact. A pig’s tail is a measurement of its well-being. Pigs get very easily stressed in confined conditions, and they can bite each other’s tails which can result in docking. The EU has a directive that has been in force for 18 years which bans the tail docking of pigs, and only Finland and Sweden follow it. Atria pig farms have an average of 30% more space than those in the rest of the EU, and in Finland, a pig has a space of 0.9 m2, whereas it has 0.65 m2 elsewhere in the EU.

– Nowhere else in the world do pigs have it as good as in Finland. This is because we have had to set up more space, better conditions and more stimulation for them, and our pigs eat at the same time, Tirkkonen says. 

The belief at Atria is that doing your job as best as you can gives you the gumption to put your name on a package. This means that seeing a producer’s name on a package is the ultimate guarantee of quality and trust. Tirkkonen emphasises that Atria works rigorously and responsibly on every level for the good of the animal and the consumer. This chain of production is a result of work that has been done for quite a long time. For decades, Atria has worked for the health and welfare of pigs, meaning that the company’s affairs are carried out tremendously well. 

– When we look at other countries, there are not many places in the world where things are better than what we have here in Finland, Tirkkonen deliberates.

According to Tirkkonen, around 70% of consumers in 2017 were more or less concerned about the use of antibiotics in animal rearing. This statistic was found in consumer surveys. Spain uses around 20 times more antibiotics than Finland and up to 40 times more than Sweden. This subject has been well covered in Italy, which says that change is happening.

– Nowhere in the Atria chain are antibiotics or medicines being used preventively or to stimulate growth. This is strictly prohibited, Tirkkonen stresses.

– Of course, animals that become sick are treated, but then they are not counted amongst those in antibiotic-free production. 

A large group of people from different fields came to listen to the lecture. Some of the passengers’ comments include: 

– It was an interesting lecture, and I got a lot of new information.

– I was surprised to hear about the quality of Finnish meat in comparison to production in other countries.

– I was shocked to hear about docking a pig’s tail. I didn’t know it has anything to do with a reaction to stress.

– I know that Finnish animals are treated well, and it was nice to get confirmation about this.

The lecture was held in February 2019.