With the Initiative Tierwohl, which was set up in 2015, partners from the agricultural sector, the meat industry, the food retail and gastronomy sectors acknowledge their joint responsibility for livestock farming, animal health and animal welfare. As part of the Initiative Tierwohl, the recipients from these industries are obliged to pay an animal welfare price premium determined by the ITW to the participating pig, broiler and turkey producers. Piglet rearers, however, receive an animal welfare payment from a fund, into which the participants from the food retail and gastronomy sectors pay around 30 million euros annually. This way, the ITW is able to provide farmers with financial support to help them implement measures to improve the welfare of their livestock that go beyond the legal standards.

Identity means: the goods belong to a defined commodity flow. This implies that they can be traced back to the farm that they came from. For the Initiative Tierwohl this signifies that products can be marked with a seal so that consumers are able to identify meat from ITW farms when they shop.