"Pret recognises animals are sentient beings and that good animal welfare encompasses not only good health and physical wellbeing, but good mental wellbeing and the ability to express species-specific behaviour," the company noted in its new public policy statement. "Through this policy, our aim is to set an ambitious set of standards for our business to work towards to help drive accountability and action, both for Pret and our supply chain and franchise partners.”
"We congratulate Pret a Manger for its excellent new policy, including its comprehensive protections for the welfare of fish and crustaceans in its global supply chain, and its expansion of protections for chicken, ducks and other poultry across its international markets,” said Astrid Duque, sustainability program director at the Lever Foundation, which worked with Pret on its new policy. "Commitments such as this, which establish uniform welfare protections for all animals in the supply chain, help companies like Pret meet customer expectations and build brand value while also doing the right thing.”
The new policy is centered around Pret’s Five Principles of Animal Welfare, reflecting an extraordinary commitment to a more humane approach across its supply chain. For the seafood category, this means Pret requires humane slaughter for all fish and crustaceans and prohibits mutilations such as eyestalk ablation. The policy also sets key quality-of-life protections by requiring suppliers to meet the standards of established seafood welfare certification programmes. For farmed seafood, this ensures good water quality, appropriate environments and stocking densities, and effective measures to prevent disease and reduce mortality.
