Animal welfare

The welfare standards our customers expect

Despite the economic downturn, the sales of higher welfare chicken have continued to rise. This is a measure of how important animal welfare is to many of our customers. It’s something we take very seriously too.

We worked with farmers around Britain to develop the ‘Woodland’ rearing system, creating an environment that stimulates chickens’ natural ‘jungle fowl’ behaviour. As a result, in January 2009 we were the first supermarket to launch ‘Woodland’ chicken. And now all our ‘Taste The Difference’ chicken carries the ‘Woodland’ brand. Then in February we became the first major food retailer to stop selling eggs laid by battery hens.

Two pence from every ‘Woodland’ chicken and box of ‘Woodland’ eggs sold is paid to woodland producers to help promote sustainable free-range farming. Over £300,000 has already been donated to the Woodland Trust via this initiative. We were awarded the 2008 Compassion in World Farming ‘Good Egg Award’, for the second year in a row, for our work in this area.

May 2009