Aldi Süd and Kaufland are among the businesses leading animal welfare efforts among Germany's major food retailers, according to the latest Greenpeace Supermarket Check.
Aldi Süd secured the overall top spot for the third time (after previously topping the polls in 2021 and 2023), while Kaufland ranked second. Edeka, Lidl and REWE round off the top five.
Greenpeace Supermarket Check surveyed eight major food retailers in Germany on their progress in animal husbandry and animal husbandry labelling.
The survey included packaged and unpackaged fresh meat, milk and dairy products, as well as meat and sausage products.
Aldi Süd
Aldi Süd was recognised for its wide range of animal welfare products and the consistent implementation of measures to achieve targets set as part of its #Haltungswechsel (Change of attitude) campaign.
Dr. Julia Adou, director of sustainability at Aldi Süd, explained, "With our #Haltungswechsel, we have set ourselves ambitious goals for improving animal welfare. We are consistently pursuing these goals and have already celebrated some interim successes in recent months.
"The fact that our commitment has also been recognised with a first place by an independent NGO motivates us to continue to make progress on the issue of animal welfare."
Aldi Süd sources all own-brand drinking milk from higher-quality husbandry systems and 100% from Germany.
Elsewhere, all fresh turkey meat and fresh beef have moved to higher husbandry systems.
Overall, 50% of the discounter's fresh meat comes from more animal-friendly husbandry systems, as well as over 20% of its chilled meat and sausage products.
Aldi Süd is aiming to convert its entire range of fresh meat and chilled meat and sausage products to higher-quality husbandry systems by 2030.
Kaufland
Placing second, Kaufland performed strongest in terms of transparency, with well over 90% of goods labelled at the counters.
The proportion of husbandry levels 3 and 4 was also the highest at Kaufland at over 80%, the study found.
Anna Spiess, head of sustainability purchasing at Kaufland, stated, "Our service counters in particular stand for the highest quality and complete transparency, which is why we deliberately offer meat from improved animal husbandry systems. In this way, we also meet our customers' wishes for an animal-friendly range and enable conscious purchases through transparent labelling.
"For us, it is clear that buying products with more animal welfare must also become a matter of course for our customers, because only together can we sustainably improve animal welfare in livestock farming."
