Animal Welfare

Our aim is to source and farm in a way which respects and restores.

We’re making improvements across our supply chain to make sure that all animals are treated with dignity and respect. In particular, we’re working closely with farmers to develop better ways of rearing animals. For example, we have formed farmer groups to benchmark health and welfare standards. We also use the ‘Five Freedoms’ framework to help define our animal welfare and sourcing policies. At Asda, we stipulate that all of our meat must be stunned pre-slaughter. For more information about our position on animal welfare, have a look at our Animal Welfare Policy.

Animal Testing

We don’t test any of our own-brand beauty, toiletry or household products on animals. In fact, we haven’t tested any of the ingredients in our cosmetics or cleaning products on animals since the end of 2009 and 2015 respectively.

Animal Slaughter

At Asda we stipulate that all meat must be stunned pre-slaughter. For more information about Asda's position on animal welfare, have a look at our Animal Welfare Policy.

Reducing antibiotics in Food Production

We do not support the routine preventative use of antibiotics in livestock rearing. We work with suppliers and farmers on the reduction and responsible use of antibiotics without compromising animal welfare. We are also members of the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials, and the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance, working across the food sector on this important topic.

Antibiotics are used in farm animals to treat, control and prevent disease. Some antibiotics used in animals are also used in human medicine, and are categorised as “critically important antimicrobials”. Consequently, there is more concern over the use of these products in medical and veterinary treatments.

Antibiotics should be used responsibly in human and veterinary medicine. This means not using antibiotics to treat viruses or as a substitute for good farm management practices, which reduce the risk of disease – as little as possible but as much as necessary. Asda does not support routine preventative use of antibiotics in livestock systems nor their use for production purposes i.e. for enhancing growth or to improve feed efficiency.

You can read our Asda specific survey results from 2018 here, however the supplier survey is now a national survey.

Pork

At Asda, our Own Brand fresh pork supply comes from recognised welfare schemes such as Red Tractor, or equivalent. Our main pork supplier uses on farm assessments of pig welfare using a set of five objectives and repeatable measures, carried out by veterinary surgeons as part of the Red Tractor Standard. Welfare outcomes are also monitored at EU supplier sites through audits, both on farm and processing sites.

We receive data on several health and welfare topics through our UK supply base (2020-2021):

Pork Welfare Outcomes %

Our main pork supplier monitors health and welfare outcomes such as Death On Arrival, lameness and slips and falls seen through UK abattoirs as shown above for the 2020-2021 period. Asda and our main pork supplier are working to reduce these welfare outcomes through benchmarking, feedback to farmers and industry best practice.

Following changes to the European Legislation, we ensure all purchased EU pork is, as a minimum, compliant to the revised legislation and therefore comes from farms where sows are not confined throughout the whole of their gestation period. This confinement is for a maximum of 28 days post insemination where they are then loose housed.

At Asda, 100% of our UK & EU Own Brand fresh pork supply is free from routine mutilations such as tail docking and teeth clipping, except when guided by a veterinary surgeon within a health plan. We work closely with our suppliers and producers to avoid confinement within our pork supply. 100% of our UK pork supply do not confine sows throughout their gestation period. Asda and our suppliers are always looking to improve the welfare of pigs, for example, working on freer farrowing systems.

Asda requires all suppliers and producers to provide species-specific enrichment to encourage natural behaviours. 100% of our UK and EU pork supply have permanent access to environmental enrichment to satisfy their pigs behavioural requirements. Examples of these enrichments are straw, wood, objects such as footballs, deformable plastic pipe and chains with objects attached.

Pork Stunning %

From our main pork supplier, we can report 100% effectiveness of stunning prior to kill, meaning no re-stuns were required. All our suppliers’ abattoirs have monitored CCTV to ensure the quality of animal welfare is maintained throughout the facilities.

Pork Transportation %

100% of our main supplier’s pig’s journey times (from farm to production facilities) are within the 8-hour limit, with average journey times between 3-4 hours.

At Asda we want to improve our pig’s health and welfare in the most sustainable way possible. To do this, we work closely with our suppliers to ensure the best possible standards are used. We have recently introduced a pig farmer group with our main pork supplier to benchmark health and welfare data as well as look at the latest technology, information, and best practice within the industry.

We have also been supporting our main pork supplier with different research and development projects who are actively investing in advanced, indoor, non - confinement farrowing systems. For example, they are assessing the viability of using 3D cameras to monitor overall animal welfare, including behaviour and 365-day welfare auditing.

Dairy

All our Asda fresh milk is 100% UK from farmer owned cooperatives. All farms must meet welfare standards of Red Tractor as well as our suppliers’ own farm assurance scheme.

In 2004, Asda was the first major supermarket to establish a dedicated dairy supply arrangement for liquid milk. Since then, Asda and our GB supplier have worked together on schemes to help the farmer, processor and retailer work together to create a reliable, safe, and efficient milk supply with high animal welfare. Asda works with a group of dairy farmers, formed in 2013 as the Pathfinders, now known as the Asda Challengers. This engaged group of farmers meet throughout the year to share best practice in animal welfare surrounding farm management and business resilience, and to benchmark data to drive technical performance. The group was first formed in 2013 and has grown continuously, with Asda now working with 108 individual dairy farmers and 89 businesses on animal welfare.

The groups key results are:

Sharing of best practice
Network of peers
Mastitis levels are 13% below the national average
Reduced the groups carbon footprint by between 2008 – 2018 by 20% (Average GHG/Litre)

We receive data on several health and welfare topics:

We work with our supplier and farmer group to improve upon health and welfare outcomes through benchmarking and industry best practice.

As awareness of antibiotic resistance grows, and responsible on-farm antibiotic use has become a key issue, all Asda Challenger farmers have been involved in training on responsible antibiotic use, the benchmarking of on-farm use and preventative medicine discussions. This information was combined with the health, welfare and economic benchmarking already undertaken to give a clear picture into the reasons behind antibiotic use amongst the groups, and the barriers to reducing use going forward. The health and welfare of animals has been a top priority during this process and the aim of this programme is to reduce antibiotic use through improvements in animal husbandry and preventative medicine, rather than by not treating any sick animals.

Below the 2020 RUMA targets (50% below in some cases) on dry cow antibiotic usage (2020) https://www.ruma.org.uk

Antibiotic usage reduced by 11.4% in 2018 (after establishing usage in 2017)

Total ADD (Average Daily Dose) usage has fallen significantly

Asda works on different research and development projects with our milk supplier to help improve animal health and welfare. For example, a temporary calf housing trial looking at aiming to identify the most effective solution for farmers who need to increase the amount of calf accommodation on their farms. This project helped farmers transition to the ‘Every Calf Has a Value’ policy where no healthy calf shall be slaughtered or euthanised on farm within the first eight weeks of life and ensure adequate housing during TB lockdown, thus increasing calf health and welfare. A final report on this project will be available in 2022. Other projects include health data harvesting to improve efficiency and welfare. For more information on this project outcome please see the Asda Calf Housing report. We are also working with the Asda beef group on a variety of technologies such as an ear tag which collects behavioural measurements, such as grazing time and rumination time, for correlation with growth rates.

Lamb

All our Own Brand lamb is reared to Red Tractor Standards or equivalent. All staff handling animals through our lamb supplier’s abattoirs have been trained in animal welfare qualifications including Defra approved Certificate of Competence. Our supplier has recognised animal welfare officers within the animal welfare team, receiving University of Bristol approved in-house training. All our suppliers’ abattoirs have monitored CCTV to ensure the quality of animal welfare is maintained throughout the facilities.

All our lambs are reared alongside their mothers until they are weaned. After that, lambs stay together in groups on a grass and forage diet and only supplemented with other feeds if there is bad weather to ensure the nutritional needs of the lambs are met. Outside of the British season we source lamb from New Zealand through a small supply base which have been benchmarked against UK Red Tractor standards. We are working on developing a group of British lamb farmers to work on health, welfare and industry-based projects and benchmarking.