How Verified Welfare Score is verified

1. Host the data. The producer connects its record systems to the Trust, which hosts the species' core outcome indicators at flock, herd or lot level with denominators, periods, methods and missing records. Producers can publish the hosted figures on their directory entry; the score is public either way. After submission, figures change only through logged corrections that remain visible. Continuous; daily exports.
2. Audit the collection protocol. Auditors review the sampling plan, scorer training and calibration against reference footage, instrument calibration, and the software that turns on-farm records into hosted figures. The audit must pass before any data is scored. A changed protocol or software release requires re-audit before the score is renewed. At enrolment, annually, and at every protocol or software change.
3. Re-score unannounced. A Trust auditor visits within an unannounced 30-day window, re-scores a random sample of animals for walking ability and body, foot and hock condition, checks sensors and scales against reference instruments, and checks mortality and cull logs against a physical count. A material difference from the farm's own figures suspends the score until it is resolved and disclosed. At least twice a year per farm.
4. Reconcile continuously. The Trust recomputes every hosted figure from signed source exports. Gaps, outages and corrections must appear in the hosted record as such. Unexplained divergence suspends the score. Daily, automated.
5. Score against the industry reference. The verified core indicators over the most recent four completed production cycles are each placed against the Trust's industry reference for the species, combined into a composite, and expressed as a whole-number score from 0 to 10. Core health indicators (for meat chickens: survival including culls, walking ability, footpad and hock condition) cap the score: a farm cannot score above the band its weakest core health indicator reaches. After every completed production cycle.
6. Score producers that share no data. Producers that share no data are scored on what their certification requires. For chickens raised for meat: no welfare certification (typical conventional production) 3; GAP Step 1 and American Humane Certified 4; Certified Humane and GAP Step 2 5; GAP Step 3 and Certified Humane Free Range 6; GAP Steps 4, 5 and 5+ and Animal Welfare Approved 7. These scores are not measured results. A producer that shares data is scored on its own outcomes instead. Reviewed annually and whenever a referenced standard is revised.
7. Publish. Every directory entry says whether the producer's score comes from outcome data it shares or from what its certification requires. A verified producer's entry shows its score and audit status, and the outcome data behind it where the producer publishes it. Scores are published whether high or low. After every scoring.

What is checked

• The sampling plan: which animals are scored, when, and how they are selected, so that the published figures represent the whole flock or herd rather than a chosen subset.
• Scorer training and calibration: on-farm scorers are tested against the Trust's reference footage for walking ability, footpad, hock and body condition, and must meet its agreement threshold before their scores count.
• Unannounced re-scoring: a Trust auditor re-scores a random sample of animals and compares the result with the farm's own scores for the same period.
• Instruments and logs: gas and climate sensors against reference instruments, scales against known loads, and mortality and cull logs against a same-day physical count.
• The publishing software: the path from on-farm record to hosted figure, reviewed at every release, with daily reconciliation of hosted data against signed source exports.

What is not checked

• Experiences or practices the species rubric does not record.
• Each individual animal; outcomes are verified at flock, herd or lot level against the audited sampling plan.
• Compliance with any other certification's standard. A score without data reflects what that standard requires; it is not an inspection of the farm and not a measured result.