FAQ's

• Heating and cooling consume a lot of energy. How do you use energy?
• Abattoirs are always cold and wet places. How come?
• Why do you use so much water?
• So what do you do to ensure you waste as little water as possible?
• How are cattle lorries cleaned?
• How much organic and conventional pork does VION Food Netherlands produce?
• Is VION an advocate of organic pork?
• During price wars, supermarkets sometimes sell meat below cost price. How does VION feel about that?
• How is pork traceable?
• Can I see in the supermarket from which pig my packet of bacon has come?



Heating and cooling consume a lot of energy. How do you use energy?
Cold and heat play an important role throughout the production process. By properly insulating rooms, we can keep them at the desired temperature, so we do not constantly need to provide additional cooling or heating. Employees are reminded to close doors at strategically located places. At many of our sites, these crucial doors close automatically.
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Abattoirs are always cold and wet places. How come?
Actually, it is quite warm at the first part of the slaughter line. At the lines where the meat is cut it is somewhat colder. Our production processes and strict hygiene requirements stipulate these temperatures.
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Why do you use so much water?
For cleaning. Not for cooling. Our working method is designed to operate as hygienically as possible. Clean materials are important for that. A range of different projects we have run in recent years have helped us cut back our water consumption.
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So what do you do to ensure you waste as little water as possible?
Our main objective is cleaning. And we use water for that. Cleaning is done using high pressure and modern techniques.
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How are cattle lorries cleaned?
With water and disinfectant. We stipulate stringent hygiene requirements. Each cattle lorry is cleaned completely, and disinfected before they are allowed to leave our site.
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How much organic and conventional pork does VION Food Netherlands produce?
We have four quality concepts at VION Food Netherlands that are geared to the demand from our customers. Most customers ask for Good Farming Retail and Good Farming Welfare. The market for organic pork is small but growing steadily. We consider all our quality concepts to be a valuable part of our pork range.
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Is VION an advocate of organic pork?
Our view is that pork must always be produced in a responsible way. We also base our production on the different requirements of our buyers and consumers. That is why we offer both organic and conventional pork.
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During price wars, supermarkets often sell meat below cost price. How does VION feel about that?
VION Food Group cannot exert any influence on supermarkets' pricing policy. In general, we feel that the price should reflect quality. For quality products, such as our meat or a product with extra guarantees or special qualities, a price that reflects that should be the norm.
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How is pork traceable?
You can find a great deal of information on the barcode on packages supplied by VION Retail Netherlands. This ensures that, amongst other things, we are able to trace back on which day and at what time the pigs were slaughtered at the abattoir. Using the stored data, we can trace which pig farmers supplied animals processed at the abattoir in this identified time frame.
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Can I see in the supermarket from which pig my packet of bacon has come?
Consumer packaging does not provide any information about the pig farmer from which the meat originated. Such information is contained in the barcode on the packet. Each packet can be linked back to a production shift, which in turn tells us which pig farmer initially supplied the batch. Actually tracing the bacon back to an individual pig is not possible.
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