We use animal-based ingredients such as milk, eggs, and meat across a range of our products. We believe all animals should be treated responsibly and with dignity, and we work with our suppliers to ensure that high standards of animal welfare are met.
We continuously advocate for greater awareness of animal welfare issues across our supply chain, and regularly engage with our suppliers to understand their practices and challenges. We seek to improve the lives of farm animals by increasing the visibility and extending the development of good animal welfare practices across our whole supply chain, including within our primary producers and indirect users of animal-derived ingredients.
Our Animal Welfare Policy embraces the Farm Animal Welfare Committee’s stated Six Freedoms, identified to safeguard, and improve the welfare of livestock. They are:
- 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.
- Freedom to undergo positive experiences - by providing appropriate conditions to experience positive emotions and encourage natural behaviour.
You can find all our policies and reports for 2021 at this link
As a business, we ensure the ingredients we buy are sourced to high standards:
- 100% of our dairy products are assured to various assurance schemes such as: Red Tractor (UK), RSPCA Assured (UK), Board Bia (Ireland), Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme, or Origin Green and Organic.
- 100% of our eggs are from cage-free hens (see for instance Mr Kipling).
- 100% of our eggs are KAT certified. KAT is seen as a higher animal welfare scheme.
- 100% of all other species are audited under various assurance schemes such as Red Tractor, RSPCA assured, EU standards or NZ standards.

Watch video interview of farmer Andrew Bray who supplies milk for Ambrosia
Whilst we were delighted to see this work recognised through a Tier 2 ranking by BBFAW in 2019, we continually seek to improve and so have set ourselves stretching intermediary goals to reach in 2023 and have included animal welfare goals in our Joint Business Plans with suppliers. We have also extended our work to reach the most difficult parts of our supply chain and rolled out our annual animal welfare survey to our animal derivatives suppliers to understand their practices and challenges. This work was recognised with our BBFAW score improving this year and retaining our Tier 2 ranking providing all our stakeholders with the independent verification and confidence in our commitments and practices.
We require all suppliers supplying products of animal origin to complete a set of questions on their approach to the management of animal welfare issues, as well as reporting on performance on various criteria. As part of this process, suppliers must confirm that they comply to the Premier Foods Animal Welfare Policy. In addition, we have incorporated animal welfare objectives into the joint business plans of our key suppliers to drive outcomes forward. In the event of non-compliance with the requirements of our animal welfare policy, our team will agree appropriate and time-bound, corrective actions with the supplier. Our supplier audit team will also arrange to visit the supplier's premises to review the process and suggest improvements to meet specification / animal welfare policy. If the supplier is then still unable to comply with our policy, we will serve notice and source from an alternative supplier that can meet our requirements.
In 2019, we have signed and agreed to the principles and policies of the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA). We sit on the Strategic Delivery Board of this body which brings together retailers, manufacturers, processors, and foodservice companies, to promote and support responsible antimicrobial use and action on antimicrobial resistance. This means that the farmers we work with stop using antibiotics as a proactive, preventative measure and only use critically important antibiotics, as defined by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as a last resort to safeguard their animals’ welfare where no alternative treatment option is available.
For more information, please visit: https://www.farmantibiotics.org/progress-updates/retail-foodchain