Animal Welfare

Our Commitment

At Lidl GB, we work hard to ensure that all animals in our supply chain live a good life. We do this through a wide range of actions, and our partnerships with organisations like Red Tractor and RSPCA Assured.

We’re proud of the strong relationships with British suppliers that we’ve cultivated through our lean buying practices. Importantly, championing British farming means that we can provide products with leading welfare standards, at an affordable price.

Our animal welfare policy

Our approach

Learn more about our approach to animal welfare below.

The five freedoms

The five freedoms principle established by the Farm Animal Welfare Council underpins all of our work on this topic. To learn more, watch the video from Scotland's Rural College, where Emma Baxter, Senior Researcher explains what this means for animals in our supply chain.

Purchasing animal-based products responsibly

Many of our own-brand products contain raw materials that come from animals. We expect our suppliers to maintain high animal welfare standards throughout the production process. This includes ensuring access to pasture or outdoor areas for animals, in addition to meeting certain transport and ethical slaughtering requirements.

Increasing our free range offer

We’re sourcing more of our shell eggs and egg ingredients from cage-free hens. Learn more below.

Our egg sourcing commitments

We are committed to working with our suppliers to phase out the sale of eggs from caged hens in our stores by 2025. This commitment covers both shell eggs and eggs used as an ingredient in our own-brand products. We are on track to deliver this commitment and our progress is shared in the tables below.

Figures based on number of shell eggs sold.

**The covid-19 pandemic caused unique and significant challenges for the egg sector. Impacts such as the closure of the hospitality sector, the rise of home baking during periods of lockdown and challenges relating to the labour market disrupted supply chain forecasts within the industry. Lidl worked hard with its supply case during this period to keep its shelves stocked with high quality eggs at competitive prices, ensuring it met customer demand throughout this unprecedented period. Due to these unforeseen circumstances Lidl is reporting an increase in the proportion of enriched caged-eggs versus cage-free eggs in FY20/21 in comparison with FY 19/20. Despite this, Lidl is engaging closely with its supply base on the conversion to 100% cage-free eggs by 2025 and remains committed to achieving this goal.

Figures in the above table are based on the proportion of our products that contain egg as an ingredient. Figures for both shell egg and egg as an ingredient will be updated in Q2 next financial year.

Ensuring our eggs adhere to third-party standards

All the eggs we sell are produced under the Lion assurance scheme and carry the British Lion mark. Alongside this, some products also have ‘higher welfare’ certifications including RSPCA Assured and Organic. Customers can learn more about how our hens are raised, through our industry-leading 'Welfare Windows,' which showcase the various methods used to rear animals in our supply chain. These windows adhere to third-party assurance standards such as RSPCA Assured and Organic. To find out more about our Method of Production Labelling, please see here.

Transitioning our shell eggs to free-range and organic by 2025

We announced in 2022 that 100% of our shell eggs would transition entirely to a free-range and organic offering. This transition will be completed in 2025, reinforcing our commitment to the welfare and conditions in which hens are housed. In addition to our ambitious commitments, Lidl is one of the first retailers to roll out white eggs across all stores in the UK, helping producers by utilising more productive and environmentally friendly birds.

Increasing animal welfare standards

We’re proud to promote and implement husbandry conditions that go beyond industry standards, working closely with our suppliers. Read more about some of our projects below.

Grass-fed Steak supplied by Dunbia

Our grass-fed steak is a premium steak line from dedicated farmers. The product comes from stock reared on a healthy diet of at least 70% grass & forage, with at least 180 days grazing per year. Our farmers are also paid a premium to support a farming process that is more sustainable for the planet.

We are proud that the dedicated farmers who supply our Grass-Fed Range are British and Red Tractor Farm Quality Assured. This Standard ensures that all animals are treated to the highest levels of animal welfare throughout their lifetime.

Kipster eggs

Our partnership with company Kipster will see us become the first grocer in Great Britain to sell their eggs by the end of 2025.

Kipster’s industry leading and transformative farming concept will see British eggs produced by chickens that are farmed to the highest welfare standards and which have a significantly reduced carbon footprint, with the remaining offset through the purchase of carbon credits.

Improving chicken welfare

In collaboration with our suppliers, we are increasing the space allocated to our own-label fresh chickens by 20% above the industry standard, elevating the wellbeing for these animals.

Providing chickens with more space to roam enables them to engage in natural behaviours like stretching their wings, dust bathing and exploring, bolstering both physical and psychological well-being, leading to more fulfilling lives. We’re proud to support our suppliers with the transition through increased investment.

To learn about our dairy supply chain in particular, please click here.

Labelling

We’re committed to being transparent about how our animals are looked after, so that our shoppers can make conscious, informed purchasing decisions. Learn more below.

Third-party certification

All of our suppliers are certified according to Red Tractor, Quality Meats Scotland or RSPCA Assured, or certified organic.

All of our British fresh meat and poultry is assured by Red Tractor. This standard goes above and beyond EU minimum requirements in areas such as antibiotic usage, lower stocking densities, and natural enrichment (for example, the need for perching bales, pecking objects and naturally lit barns) on our UK meat chicken farms. In pigs, this standard ensures that 100% of our fresh pork supply chain is free from castration. it also ensures that pigs have permanent access to environmental enrichment and are provided with adequate manipulable materials throughout their lives.

The RSPCA Assured logo is a third-party higher welfare certification that also spans across all our fresh meat and poultry categories, as well as some of our Deluxe fish products including salmon. We currently have 24 RSPCA Assured products lines, but this number is continually growing.

Lidl ‘Welfare Windows’

We were the first UK retailer to introduce a ‘method of production’ label on our fresh poultry, pork, and egg products.

Our Welfare Label is located on the front of pack and gives our customers detailed descriptions of how the animals that we sell have been reared.

We’re using our industry-leading position on animal welfare labelling to engage Government, providing data and insights that show strong customer appetite for greater clarity about the food they purchase.

More steps we're taking on animal welfare

Leaping Bunny

At Lidl GB, we do not support testing on animals for cosmetic or household products, and we do not carry out or commission any such testing on our own-brand products or the ingredients they contain. To support our commitment to no animal testing, in January 2022 Lidl GB became approved as cruelty free under the Leaping Bunny Programme. Leaping Bunny is the globally recognisable gold standard for cruelty free cosmetics, personal care, household and cleaning products. We adhere to a fixed cut-off date policy and monitor our suppliers to ensure that our products continue to adhere to the Leaping Bunny criteria. All suppliers must meet our Leaping Bunny requirements and ensure that cosmetic and household products, including their ingredients have not been tested on animals after our fixed cut-off date of 11th March 2013.

Stunning

All farm animals entering the Lidl GB supply chain must be stunned prior to slaughter and remain unconscious and insensible to pain from the initial stun until death occurs. We follow DEFRA’s guidance on the welfare of animals at the time of slaughter.

Transport

Lidl obliges its suppliers and partners to keep the routes for animal transport as short as possible and to drive to slaughterhouses close to their operations.

Use of antibiotics

Our Antibiotics Stewardship Policy aligns to the targets set by the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA) and the principles set out by the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA). For more information, please visit: https://fiia.co.uk/policies/fiia-policy-on-responsible-use-of-antibiotics/. Through these targets to reduce the use of antibiotics in our supply chain, we have started a project with the University of Glasgow School of Medicine, aiming to gain greater insight. Learn more about our stance on antibiotic use and the research project.

Non-food products

We do not sell real fur. We do not sell products composed of materials derived from exotic or protected animals, or any wool that has been mulesed.

Meat-free ranges

We’re continuously expanding our meat-free ranges, and we also disclose the proportion of animal and plant-based protein we sell.Learn more about our Healthy & Sustainable Diets policy here: Healthy & Sustainable Diets - Lidl Great Britain

Use of monkeys for coconut harvest

We do not use monkeys to harvest coconuts for any of our own-brand products.

To find out more, read our latest 'Good Food' sustainability report: Lidl Great Britain

Our goals

By 2025

Have robust animal welfare action plans in place for six key categories, being delivered against for each of our primary proteins.

By 2025

Sell 100% of our eggs from cage-free hens. Ensure that our free-range organic eggs are RSPCA Assured.

By 2025

Increase the space allocated to our own-label fresh chickens by 20% above the industry standard, elevating the wellbeing for these animals. Reduce the maximum stocking density to 30kg/sqm.

Our partners

We’re proud to partner and engage in dialogue with our suppliers as well as Red Tractor, RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), WWF and the NFU on how best to improve animal welfare in our supply chain.