Purpose & Scope
This policy outlines Tesco UK & ROI’s farmed decapod crustacean welfare commitments and applies to all own label Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) farmed decapod crustaceans in the following categories:
- Fresh
- Frozen
- Canned
- Pre Prepared
This policy covers practices applied during capture, on-board holding/sorting, landing, storage, transport, slaughter and the general handling of farmed decapod crustaceans. It will also reference our Tesco Welfare Approved standard for some farming specific practices, and should be read in conjunction with our overarching Animal Welfare Policy. More information can be shared with suppliers wanting to understand prerequisites to supplying Tesco in line with decapod crustacean welfare.
This policy specifically covers farmed Decapod Crustaceans, there is an ongoing review into our wild sourced decapod crustacean supply chains and a separate policy will be published for wild sourced in due course.
Purpose
Animal health and welfare is a key component of our wider sustainable farming agenda and our requirements and approach in this area include:
- Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) standards, which are species specific and follow the Five Freedoms proposed by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee, aim to ensure transparency across our supply chains and are designed and regularly reviewed to drive improvement.
- All farms must comply with a recognised farm assurance scheme, such as Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Global GAP or BAP 4*, in addition to meeting our TWA requirements.
- We are committed to the reduction in antibiotic usage as part of the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA) and publicly report progress.
- Regular submission of Welfare Outcome Measure data evidencing key health and welfare parameters
- Tesco is committed to high standards of animal welfare in all of its supply chains, which we manage through sourcing strategies, policies and species-specific welfare standards. We continually develop these to ensure demonstrable best practice, consistent with industry advances, research and changes to legislation, through a combined process of supplier consultation and engagement with NGOs. The current policy is the result of this process and we recognise the valuable contributions from our suppliers, Crustacean Compassion, the Shrimp Welfare Project, Aquatic Life Institute and World Wildlife Fund in articulating our commitments for Farmed Decapod Crustaceans.
- For our customers, we source farmed Decapod Crustaceans including Penaeus vannamei (white leg prawns) and Penaeus monodon (tiger prawns). Now legally recognized as ‘sentient’ beings (Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022) their welfare, like all other species in our supply chains, is of the utmost importance. Consequently we have species-specific welfare policies, covering all aspects of farming, transport and slaughter, in place for all our farmed species, including Decapod Crustaceans. Compliance with these policies is independently audited and suppliers additionally hold independent certification against a recognized assurance standard such as ASC, Global GAP or BAP 4*. Regular submission of Welfare Outcome Measure data evidencing key health and welfare parameters is also a requirement from each supplying site.
- With this continuous improvement process we aim to build a supply base that can both share learnings where appropriate but also identify risk at an earlier stage and mitigate in a sustainable way. Further detail on our approach can be found in our latest Animal Health and Welfare report.
- In addition to these requirements, we have committed to the following decapod animal health and welfare targets.
Our Commitments
1. We will not sell any live decapod crustaceans in stores at any of our sites or online
We recognise that there are several major welfare concerns with the transport, storage and eventual slaughter of Decapod Crustaceans when sold as live either through retail stores or online retailing. We therefore commit to prohibiting the sale of any live decapod crustaceans through our stores or online.
2. We will ensure that 100% of our suppliers comply with recognised farm assurance schemes, such as ASC, Global GAP or BAP 4*
Farm assurance schemes play an integral part in the management of farmed decapod crustaceans, ensuring farming practices protect and improve the health and welfare of these animals whilst adhering to legislative requirements. Our suppliers must hold certification against a recognised assurance scheme that is compliant with ISO 17020 inspection requirements as a prerequisite of supply, 100% of our suppliers are compliant with this commitment. This applies to all stages of the supply chain, including hatcheries, farms and feeds mills. In addition to this, Tesco use independent audits to assess suppliers against our Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) species specific standards, more detail of which can be found in our annual report.
3. We will ensure that 100% of decapod crustacean feed achieves a Forage Fish/Oil Dependency Ratio of <1 by 2030
We recognise that all farmed species require a nutritious, balanced diet to promote health growth and optimal nutritional value for our consumers. For most aquatic species, this has traditionally been achieved through the inclusion of fishmeal & fish oil sourced from wild caught fish. However, the industry has been examining more sustainable sources of ingredients, such as trimmings and the use of novel ingredients. Tesco will work with our supply base to support the reduction of wild sourced fishmeal and fish oil used in diets, to ensure that all of our suppliers obtain a Forage Fish & Oil Dependency Ratios of <1.
4. 100% of our farmed Penaeus vannamei are electrically stunned by 2026
We acknowledge that humane slaughter must include an effective mechanism of stunning the animal prior to slaughter. At present a minority of our decapod crustaceans are stunned using thermal shock as the standalone method i.e. immersed in salt water with temperature below 4 degrees-C (iced water or ice slurry) , with strict monitoring of ice slurry temperatures and water conditions. However, we recognise and support the move to the use of electrical stunning of decapod crustaceans as a more effective and humane method. For Penaeus vannamei, we already have implementation of electrical stunning across a proportion of the supply base and are committed to achieving 100% adoption of this best practice approach for P. Vannamei by 2026. In addition, we are currently exploring the practicalities of implementing this across our P. Monodon supply chains with our suppliers.
5. 100% of broodstock used to produce the post-larvae (PL) for Tesco are ablation free by 2026 (Penaeus Vannamei) or 2027 (Penaeus Monodon)
Eye Stalk ablation has been used extensively within the shrimp industry to increase fertility in broodstock, however, the practice is recognised as a welfare concern. Only post larvae sourced from non-ablated female broodstock will be accepted into Tesco supply chains from 2026 for Penaeus vannamei and 2027 for Penaeus monodon.
Our Approach
All of our policies and commitments are implemented through direct communication with suppliers and supplier contracts, supply chain gap analyses and improvement plans, supplier group meetings and educational workshops.
We will ensure our sourcing policies reflect these commitments to help us meet our targets and work with our suppliers to achieve compliance with these.
We will measure our progress through the data we collect via mechanisms such as Outcome Measure collation, and we will publicly report on our progress each year on the Tesco PLC website (see our annual report) to ensure transparency with our customers and the industry as whole.
We will verify ongoing compliance against these commitments through our independent audit process, supplier reviews and outcome measure reviews.
In addition, we will work closely with industry, NGO’s and researchers to ensure our commitments stay relevant and update this policy when required.
Roles and Responsibilities
| Role | Responsibility |
| Aquaculture Manager | Ensure this document is accurate, updated and that relevant colleagues have had oversight |
| Fish Technical Managers | Ensure they read through and understand the documents, that suppliers have visibility and that they are complying with the requirements |
| Fish buyers | Ensure they read through and understand the documents, that suppliers have visibility and that they are complying with the requirements |
| Suppliers | Ensure they comply with the requirements laid out in this document and share any comments, feedback and/or concerns with Tesco technical managers, buyers or the Responsible Sourcing Team. |
Glossary
| Acronym | Definition |
| TWA | Tesco Welfare Approved |
| ASC | Aquaculture Stewardship Coucil |
| BAP | Bet Aquaculture Practices |
Associated Documents
| Document No. | Document Title |
| 60585 | Tesco Human Rights Requirements for food and grocery non-food suppliers |
| 20595 | Tesco Salmonid Farm Standard |
| 20596 | Tesco Sea Bass & Sea Bream Farm Standards |
| 20597 | Tesco Shrimp Farm Standard |
| 60576 | Tesco Salmonid Farm Requirements |
| 60577 | Tesco Sea Bass & Sea Bream Farm Requirements |
| 60578 | Tesco Shrimp Farm Requirements |
| 20598 | Tesco Pangasius Standard |
| 60589 | Tesco Pangasius Farm Requirements |
Appendices
List of relevant conventions and requirements:
Supply chains should adhere to the following
- Tesco Human Rights Requirements for food and grocery non-food suppliers (Document 60585)
Aquaculture specific:
- Tesco Zero Deforestation Soymeal Action Plan (Document 60549)
- Tesco Salmonid Farm Standard (Document 20595)
- Tesco Sea Bass & Sea Bream Farm Standards (Document 20596)
- Tesco Shrimp Farm Standard (Document 20597)
- Tesco Salmonid Farm Requirements (Document 60576)
- Tesco Sea Bass & Sea Bream Farm Requirements (Document 60577)
- Tesco Shrimp Farm Requirements (Document 60578)
