The 2025 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare report launched on 5 May 2026 highlights strong commitments to higher animal welfare across the global food industry, however, the overall pace of implementation remains slow. Overall average scores in 2025 have remained at 18% for a second year, rising from 16% in 2022.

This year’s results are the third since BBFAW introduced its more stringent Impact Rating (A-F), which assesses whether companies are delivering meaningful welfare improvements on the ground – such as adopting cage-free systems or reducing stocking densities on farm. It also has a stronger focus on how companies are working to reduce their reliance on animal-sourced foods.

gROWING cOMMITMENT TO ANIMAL WELFARE

The 2025 Benchmark demonstrates significant levels of commitment to farm animal welfare and some encouraging progress, including:

8 companies moved up a tier: Amazon/Whole Foods Market, Asda (Bellis Topco Ltd), Groupe Casino, Hilton Food Group, Maple leaf Foods, MBRF, New Hope Liuhe, WH Group.
Greggs, Marks & Spencer, Premier Foods and Waitrose were ranked as the top performers (achieving ‘Tier 2’)
3 companies achieved the highest Impact Rating (‘B’): Fonterra, Marks & Spencer and Premier Foods.
5 companies improved their Impact Rating: Asda (Bellis Topco Ltd), ALDI (ALDI South Group), Cranswick PLC, Hilton Food Group and LDC Groupe
3 UK companies (Hilton Food Group, Waitrose and Greggs PLC) ranked highest for producing protein transition products and policies as a pathway to mitigate welfare, environmental and climate risk.
The number of companies with the lowest (F) Impact Rating continued to fall for the third consecutive year, declining from 129 companies in 2022, to 120 this year.

SLOW PACE OF IMPLEMENTATION

However, BBFAW highlights that much more needs to be done to translate farm animal welfare commitments into action:

11 companies fell by one tier in 2025: Arla Foods, Campbell Soup Company, Danish Crown, Darden Restaurants, General Mills Inc, JD Wetherspoon, Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund, Premium Food Group, Sysco Corporation, Unilever NV, Woolworths Limited
While 96 companies have set a cage-free target for laying hens, only 17 (18%) of these companies report that 100% of their eggs are cage-free.
Of the 39 companies committed to the Better Chicken Commitment, only 4 report that a substantial portion of their supply chain meets its three core requirements (lower stocking densities, slower-growing breeds and humane slaughter).
For a second consecutive year, almost 90% of companies (135 companies) received the lowest Impact Ratings of ‘E’ or ‘F’ – indicating limited or no evidence of putting higher welfare commitments in place for farm animals on the ground.
Only 40% of companies (60 companies) have commitments in place to end prophylactic and routine metaphylactic antibiotic use – despite the risk of surging antibiotic resistance.

Explore further highlights by species and geography and read the full report below.