SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Whole30's CEO Melissa Urban announced a collaboration with the ASPCA through its Whole30 Approved® program, making it the first branded dietary program to commit to comprehensive animal welfare standards.

"What we eat impacts not just our own wellbeing, but the wellbeing of farmed animals," says Urban, who is also the program's co-founder. "The Whole30 program believes—as most Americans do—that animals should be raised with compassion. Our rigorous approval process has always factored animal welfare into our review, but working closely with the ASPCA means our standards will be clearly communicated and easier to enforce, while encouraging more of our partners to obtain meaningful certifications."

By 2021, all Whole30 Approved products sold in stores and online will be required to be certified by an animal welfare program recognized by the ASPCA or, short of official certification, meet rigorous animal welfare standards on farms with third-party auditing to ensure compliance.

As part of its Shop With Your Heart program, the ASPCA recognizes products bearing logos from Certified Animal Welfare Approved by A Greener World, Certified Humane, or Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Animal Welfare Certified Levels 2+, as well as products that are plant-based. 

Whole30 is the first non-vegan dietary program to stand up for better treatment of farm animals, and the ASPCA applauds Whole30 for its leadership and vision.

"Food businesses tuned into today's consumer know that demand for higher welfare options is growing at a rapid pace," said Nancy Roulston, Director of Corporate Policy and Animal Science for the ASPCA. "The ASPCA is proud to collaborate with Whole30 and Whole30 Approved brands to impact millions of farm animals' lives and build a more humane, healthy, and accountable food system."

Several Whole30 Approved products are already welfare-certified and recognized on the ASPCA's Shop With Your Heart Brand List, which requires more humane and transparent farming practices, including products by Panorama, Teton Waters Ranch, and Applegate. Additional Whole30 partners, including Model Meals, Territory, Serenity Baby Foods, and ButcherBox have committed to achieving animal welfare certification; more still have joined the 2024 commitment to improve the lives of chickens.

To learn more about Whole30's rigorous animal welfare standards, visit whole30.com/aspca.

ABOUT WHOLE30

Whole30® has been changing lives since 2009, when co-founder Melissa (Hartwig) Urban blogged about her self-designed 30-day life-changing dietary experiment. Since then, millions of people have transformed their health, habits and relationship with food through the Whole30 program; eliminating cravings, improving energy and sleep, improving any number of medical symptoms, and losing weight healthfully and sustainably. The Whole30 website serves 2 million unique visitors a month, with readers checking in from more than 100 different countries, and has a combined social media base of more than 3 million fans and followers.

SOURCE Whole30