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7. Foie Gras
Fortnum & Mason is a traditional retailer and over the centuries we have established a strong reputation for supplying
traditional foods, amongst which is foie gras.
We fully acknowledge the issues and concerns people have about the production of foie gras, therefore in 2005, we
completely reviewed our policy and put together our Gold Standards for production which have now been fully implemented.
Through our research, we identified that duck foie gras is produced as a relatively inexpensive commercial product in
intensively reared farms, so we took the decision to discontinue duck foie gras and we now only sell goose foie gras from
artisan producers who have the utmost concern for the welfare of their birds.
We only source our foie gras from two farms in France, which we visit and audit regularly to ensure that our Gold Standards
are being maintained. Our birds are kept in small flocks and are reared free range up to their 15th week. The farmer lives
on site and manages the geese through their life cycle and personally feeds them by hand during gavage. At every stage
of their life, the birds are free to move around and during gavage they are fed with corn four times a day to aid digestion.
We also monitor the death rate on the farms and we have no deaths reported in our birds during the process of gavage.
With these measures in place we are confident that our foie gras is produced in the best possible way and that the birds
lives are as at least fulfilling and stress free as that of other birds raised for the poultry market.
Fortnum & Mason Gold Standard for the production of
foie gras
• We will always source our goose foie gras from France,
the livers will be from designated areas of France with
French producers manufacturing the finished product.
• We will always use farms we have approved, where
the farmer/stockman lives on site and manages the
geese through their life cycle and personally feeds them
during the gavage process.
• We will always audit the farms ourselves to ensure all
our standards are being met.
• We will always insist on receiving and inspecting full
traceability and due diligence documents once a month,
to ensure that only our approved hatcheries, farms and
processors are being used.
• We will always ensure that our birds are raised in flocks
of no more than 450.
• We will always ensure that our birds are reared to free
range standards up to their 15th week.
• We will always ensure that are birds are able to feed and
drink ad libitum up to 13 weeks when their food shall
be given twice a day to help build their oesophageal
muscles.
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• We will always ensure that the ‘salle de gavage’ has
clean air circulating, that the temperature is closely
monitored with a cool air system in place and that the
lighting is sufficiently low to avoid distressing the birds
and sufficiently bright to allow the farmer to be able to
constantly check on the birds.
• We will always ensure that the birds (whilst in the ‘salle
de gavage’) are in open top pens ensuring they have
freedom of movement, are able to open their wings and
are able to interact with each other.
• We will always ensure that the geese are fed 4 times a
day to ensure the doses are smaller, reducing the risk of
damage to the bird and aiding its digestion.
• We will never allow our geese to be fed fat or steroids;
we will only allow them corn with the necessary
vitamins and minerals for their well-being.
• We will never use closed top pens in the ‘salle de gavage’.
• We will never put rings through their beaks.
• We will never allow our birds to reach a stage where they
can’t support their own weight and move around freely.
• We will never transport the live birds for more than
30 minutes from the farm on which they are reared.