STOP THE FRENCH ACCREDITATION SCHEME ‘LABEL ROUGE’ FROM SELLING CRUEL SCOTTISH SALMON

Petition: Withdraw Label Rouge Accreditation from Scottish Farmed Salmon

To: Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO)

We, the undersigned, urge the INAO to immediately review and recommend the withdrawal of Label Rouge accreditation from Scottish farmed salmon.

Every year, tens of millions of salmon are farmed and slaughtered in Scotland. In recent years, the industry has been plagued by repeated scandals and systemic failings, including:

• Severe animal welfare abuses – Investigations by organisations such as Animal Equality have documented salmon suffocating to death, being bludgeoned, having their gills torn while still conscious, and being thrown by workers.
• Routine chemical use – Including Emamectin Benzoate, hydrogen peroxide, and formaldehyde. One hatchery was part-suspended for breaching its license over 200 times and discharging the equivalent of Olympic-sized swimming pools of toxic waste into a local loch.
• Mass mortality events – Tens of millions of fish have died in recent years from disease outbreaks, parasite infestations, and warming waters.
• Environmental harm – Large-scale escapes leading to interbreeding with wild fish, and illegal dumping of hundreds of thousands of rotting carcasses on a Scottish beach.

France is a major importer of Scottish salmon, and around one-third of it carries the Label Rouge mark. Label Rouge is one of France’s most trusted quality labels, a symbol built on decades of public confidence. But continuing to accredit Scottish salmon from intensive farms – despite clear evidence of poor welfare and environmental harm – puts that trust at risk.

Polling commissioned by Animal Equality shows this risk is real:

• Almost all consumers in the dark – 97% of French consumers do not know that nearly all Scottish salmon, including Label Rouge-certified products, comes from intensive fish farms.
• Animal welfare matters – 87% say fish welfare is important to them.
• Demand for transparency – 89% want clear information on fish welfare, farming methods, and sustainability.
• Trust in Label Rouge – 95% associate the label with high-quality produce, and 57% believe it guarantees good welfare.
• Expectations of action – 74% believe Label Rouge should remove its accreditation if welfare or environmental standards are not met; 62% would lose confidence in the label if it failed to act; and 64% would view removing Scottish salmon as the responsible decision if standards were breached.

This is a reputational crisis in the making. If consumers see Label Rouge protecting this cruel and unsustainable industry, the label will cease to be a symbol of excellence and instead become a shield for industrial malpractice. Once lost, public trust in a quality mark is almost impossible to rebuild.

Alarmingly, standards are already slipping: in 2023, Label Rouge increased the permitted stocking density for salmon from 15kg/m³ to 20kg/m³ – leaving the fish confined in more crowded conditions. Such conditions do not meaningfully differ from the conditions of similar products marketed and therefore fail to meet the ‘superior quality’ requirements promoted by Label Rouge specification. 

The role of Label Rouge is to guarantee products that are distinctively superior; Scottish farmed salmon no longer meets that promise. In 2025, the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal found that Scottish and Norwegian salmon are effectively the same product, undermining any claim to distinctiveness. Continuing to certify it misleads consumers and damages the credibility of one of France’s most respected labels.

We call on the INAO to:

1. Launch an immediate review of all Scottish salmon farms certified under Label Rouge.
2. Recommend to the French Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs that the accreditation be withdrawn.

Protect animal welfare. Protect consumers. Protect the reputation of Label Rouge. The credibility of one of France’s most trusted labels depends on it.