Farm Animal Health & Welfare
Find out more about our approach to farm animal health and welfare
- Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour
- Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area
- Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment
- Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind
- Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering
Establishing and maintaining clear minimum standards
- We don’t permit the use of production or confinement systems for any animals in our supply which don’t meet our standards (e.g. sow stall or tether systems)
- We don’t allow specific breeds that have inherent welfare issues associated with them, e.g. Barbary duck
- We don’t allow genetic engineering or cloning of livestock
- We do not allow meat, bone meal or any unauthorised feed products in our livestock diets
- We do not permit the routine behavioural mutilation of farm animals and farmed fish (including tail docking and teeth clipping in pigs) unless veterinary advice deems it strictly necessary in order to protect the animals from subsequent loss of welfare due to injury. Where certain practices are currently unavoidable within the industry (e.g. castration or disbudding of male cattle) suppliers must utilise early intervention and best practice procedures with appropriate use of anaesthetic and analgesic for pain relief.
- Appropriate environmental enrichment must be provided in accordance with species-specific requirements.
- All the meat and poultry we sell must, without exception, come from animals that have been humanely slaughtered and animals must be pre-slaughter stunned
- We insist that all live animal transport is kept to a minimum and that long-distance transport is avoided. To ensure this, we specify a maximum transport time of 8 hours and have a target of less than 4 hours (inclusive of loading/unloading). (Note: the only exception to this policy is the transportation of farmed Atlantic salmon and farmed scallops and mussels which are covered within species-specific Codes of Practice. Find out more about our approach to managing the welfare of farmed fish and shellfish)
- We require that all animals are maintained in good health and those that are sick or injured receive prompt treatment. All producers must implement an animal health plan in conjunction with their veterinary surgeon that is regularly reviewed and updated
- We insist that producers adhere to our policy on responsible antimicrobial use. We do not permit routine use of antimicrobials and the use of growth promoting antibiotics and hormones is prohibited
- All abattoirs used in our supply chain have CCTV as part of our requirements. We regularly review footage and insist it is kept for a minimum of 90 days
Eggs | We sell 100% free-range eggs, both fresh shell and as an ingredient in our prepared products. Find out more about our approach to sourcing eggs. |
Turkeys, geese and ducks | All our fresh whole turkeys and ducks are produced to higher welfare standards including increased space and enrichment provision. All M&S geese are free range and we do not sell foie-gras or its by-products. Find out more about our approach to sourcing poultry. |
Pork | All fresh pork is RSPCA Assured outdoor bred produced on M&S Select Farms. Within our specialty range we also have organic pork too.. We are currently working to remove all confinement farrowing from our ingredient supply by January 2021. Find out more about our approach to sourcing pig meat. |
Chicken | All our Oakham fresh chicken is reared in barns with increased space (stocked at 30kg/m2), natural daylight and provision of environmental enrichment. Find out more about our approach to sourcing poultry. |
Dairy | All farms in our M&S Milk Pool are RSPCA Assured. All herds supplying us with fresh milk follow an enhanced health and welfare programme, which is audited by a specialist veterinary surgeon each year. Find out more about our approach to dairy. |
Beef | None of our calves are reared for white veal, only rose veal. Find out more about our approach to sourcing beef. |
Fish and shellfish | We’ve developed our own standards for the sourcing of farmed fish and fish feed. We aim to source wild-caught fish from the most responsible sources available. We recognise that we have a greater influence over animal welfare in a farmed fish environment, but we also seek to apply relevant welfare criteria in wild capture environments. Find out more about our approach to sourcing fish and shellfish. |
All of our Halal prepared meals are certified by the Halal Food Authority (HFA) - which has widespread recognition and regulates a large proportion of Halal products in the UK. The HFA Halal certification is in line with our longstanding Animal Welfare Policy – which requires animals to be stunned prior to slaughter.
For our Halal range we only source from farmers we know and trust and only use British Chicken from farms that meet our Select Farm requirements.
Supporting programmes that further our understanding and build capability within our supply chain
- Ongoing development of Welfare Outcome Measures
- Indoor non-confinement farrowing systems for pigs
- Reduction of Campylobacter in broiler chickens on farm and at slaughter
- Environmental enrichment for chicken production
- Avoidance of beak tipping for laying hens
- Responsible use of animal medicines in all supply chains
- Improved foot health in dairy cattle
- Humane slaughter methods for sea bass and sea bream
- Salmon safe technology for predator management on salmon farms
- The effect of breed and stocking density on welfare and behaviour in indoor broilers
Find out more about our approach to food research and technical innovation.
Improving performance through science-based outcome measures
Having established outcome measure collection for all key species within the M&S supply, we are using the data collected to set targets to drive continual improvement, in line with our Plan A commitment.
Outcome measures have been embedded into our M&S Select Farm Sourcing Standards and are integral to the way we do business. We have set outcome measure targets for 2025 in our most established supply chains - chicken, laying hens and pork. Other key species will follow.
The 2025 target set for each outcome measure is derived from the mean of the top (best performing) quartile data for 2017, across all suppliers of that species, and all production systems. Each species has one set of targets, regardless of production system. Results are shown as the percentage of farms currently meeting the target.
Suppliers must show continual improvement and progression towards the 2025 targets, this is tracked by using a progress indicator which provides the figure they must achieve as a minimum each year in order to deliver the 2025 target. Tracking progress is embedded into both our internal reporting and supplier scorecards. Outcome measure performance is reviewed across all species, on a quarterly basis, by the M&S Agriculture team alongside suppliers.
Suppliers annual results will be rated Red, Amber or Green for each measure. Red indicates no improvement or worse performance, Amber indicates improvement but not reaching the level of the progress indicator, Green indicates progress indicator level delivered/exceeded. If no improvement has been seen and a measure has been scored as red suppliers will need to put comprehensive improvement plans in place to address this.
Performance summary
During 2019/20, FSIG carried out Welfare Audits of the primary processors to ensure transport, lairage and slaughter all meet our requirements.
Based on the results of the audit, suppliers are assigned a rating based on the number and type of non-conformances and how they are progressing with addressing non-conformances from previous audits.
Audit findings and corrective actions are stored on Connect – our online Quality Management System. The supplier must sign off all audit actions within agreed timescales via FSIGs audit system- AuditHub.
All sites receiving live animals and carrying out slaughter on site are required to have a Welfare Audit each year. A total of 41 abattoirs were audited during 2019/20, 94% of which met or exceeded our requirements. Eight sites were rated ‘Improvement Required’, 23 sites were rated ‘Good’ and 4 sites achieved ‘Outstanding’ status.
Six sites failed to meet our requirements which necessitated immediate and robust corrective action to be taken. Re-audits are generally carried out within 3 months of the original audit date in order to verify that improvements have been made and sites meet our requirements.
Global supply chain measures (fresh & ingredient including frozen) | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 20171 | 2018 | 2019 |
Percent (%) animals in M&S supply chain free from routine mutilations2 | - | - | 48 | 94.4 | 96.6 |
Percent (%) animals in M&S supply chain free from confinement | - | - | 99.8 | 98.7 | 99.6 |
Percent (%) of pigs in M&S supply chain (fresh, ingredient and continental including frozen) from tail docking | - | - | 42 | 17.3 | 46.5 |
Percent (%) of M&S pork supply (fresh, ingredient and continental including frozen) from sows that are non-confinement farrowed | - | - | 76 | 47.4 | 72.1 |
Percent (%) of laying hens in M&S supply chain (fresh and ingredient) free from beak trimming | - | - | 5.5 | 20.7 | 36.3 |
Percent (%) animals (excluding fin fish) in M&S supply chain transported within specified maximum journey times (i.e. 8 hours or less) | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Percent (%) animals (including fin fish) in M&S supply chain pre-stunned prior to slaughter | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Percent (%) animals provided with effective species-specific enriched environments3 | - | - | - | - | 100 |
Percent (%) animals ineffectively stunned, i.e. subject to back-up or repeat stunning4 | - | - | - | - | 0.01 |
Percent (%) chickens (fresh, ingredient, frozen) that were recognised slower growing breeds with igher welfare outcome potentials (as specified in the European Chicken commitment) | - | - | - | - | 3.5 |
Percentage (%) of broiler chickens for own-brand fresh/frozen products and ingredients in the company's global supply chain that was reared at lower stocking densities (specifically, 30 kg/m2 or less)5 | - | - | - | - | 27.6 |
2 Excludes animal numbers from the calculation for beef, lamb and venison as this data is currently unavailable
4 Data missing from one ingredient egg supplier, one continental pork supplier and dairy supply
5 Calculated based on actual bird numbers (whole bird equivalents) rather than eligible animals
In 2017, we began to report on a number of key species-specific animal health and welfare measures on the following pages: beef/lamb, pork, poultry, dairy, eggs and fish & shellfish.
We aim to use this data to shape future production standards and drive a continual improvement culture across our farm supply base.