Recognition for our leading approach to farm animal welfare

Here at Marks & Spencer we care deeply about the welfare of the farm animals in our food supply chain. We know that animal welfare is important to our customers and so we’ve evolved our approach over many years to ensure that the farmers that supply us follow industry-leading standards of welfare practice.

To do this we have a dedicated team of agriculture and fisheries specialists responsible for delivering and implementing our welfare strategy as part of our wider agriculture policies. In addition, we work with external advisers and NGOs to help determine what best practice welfare looks like.

This is not something new – back in the 1990s we were one of the first retailers to develop our own sourcing standards, which included specific welfare requirements alongside food safety and animal health standards.

Since then, we’ve continually reviewed our approach so that our policies reflect the very best welfare possible. That’s why we are delighted to have been recognised in the top tier of food businesses globally within the latest Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare, published recently.

This independent benchmark is composed with the involvement of two major welfare NGOs – Compassion in World Farming and World Animal Protection – and measures businesses on how they address farm animal welfare in their supply chains, including policy, governance, leadership and innovation.

We warmly welcome the role that the BBFAW benchmark provides in being a catalyst for change across the global food industry and will continue to evolve our approach to animal welfare to ensure we remain a leader in this area.