Published 25/06/2020

We are pleased to announce that 34 Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards (see all the winners) have been presented to companies in the UK, EU, China and the US in 2020, which will help improve the lives of 28 million animals each year!

And even though this year’s awards ceremony has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we’re still excited to celebrate the winners who are forging ahead with their higher welfare commitments and creating positive change for farm animals.

Lots of good eggs

Noble Foods, the UK’s biggest egg producer has received a Good Egg Award for their commitment to be 100% cage-free by 2025.

Jean-Paul Michalski, Company Farms Director at Noble Foods, said: “Animal welfare is of the utmost importance to Noble Foods and we’re extremely proud of the CIWF Good Egg Award.”

Aldi UK & Ireland and Lidl UK both received a Good Egg Award for their cage-free commitments on both shell and ingredients eggs, and in the US, Taco Bell received a Good Egg Award for meeting their target to be 100% cage-free on shell and ingredient eggs – already benefiting over 400,000 hens every year.

Meanwhile, Cook picked up a Good Turkey Award, to add to their previous years’ awards: Good Egg Award (2011), Good Pig Award (2016) and Good Chicken Award (2017).

Some ‘dairy’ big achievements

Morrisons received a Good Calf Award in recognition of their joint venture partnership with Arla Food and Buitelaar to set up a new higher welfare dairy beef scheme. The aim is that by 2025 all Morrisons dairy beef will be sourced as part of this scheme.

Sophie Throup, Head of Agriculture, Fisheries and Sustainable Sourcing at Morrisons, said: “At Morrisons, our customers tell us time and again how important animal welfare is to them. We therefore continue to develop, innovate, measure and monitor animal welfare standards, and to work closely with the farmers and suppliers we buy directly from."

Cage-free accomplishments

Coop UK was awarded the Cage-Free Award in recognition of the retailer’s efforts to support cage-free farming, and in particular their goal to remove sow stalls and introduce free farrowing for sows in their supply chains in Italy, Spain and Germany. The company already has a Good Egg Award for their cage-free commitment across shell and ingredient eggs, and a Good Pig Award for their higher welfare pig products, which are sourced from 100% outdoor-bred pigs on RSPCA Assured Farms.

A food system with animal welfare at its heart

Our Director of Food Business, Tracey Jones, says: “It’s fantastic to see that there is still an appetite to improve the welfare of farm animals amongst key food industry players, despite the difficulties COVID-19 has thrown at them, and I wholeheartedly congratulate them all.

“Never in our history has it been so urgent to build a more resilient sustainable food system with animal welfare at its heart. Our corporate partners are on that journey and we will continue to work with them to drive this much needed change.”

Read more about our Food Business impact.