Welwyn Garden City, U.K.-based retailer Tesco is committing to enhanced shrimp welfare through its new Farmed Decapod Crustacean Welfare Policy, which includes such planned measures as no longer selling live shrimp and ensuring its suppliers electrically stun their shrimp before slaughter.
“We recognize 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,” Tesco’s welfare commitment states. “We, therefore, commit to prohibiting the sale of any live decapod crustaceans through our stores or online.”
The Tesco commitment covers two shrimp species – Penaeus vannamei, or whiteleg shrimp, and Penaeus monodon, or tiger prawns – and, according to Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.-based nonprofit Mercy for Animals, it represents a significant milestone in the fight for shrimp welfare.
“[Tesco’s welfare commitments] follow a sustained campaign by Mercy for Animals and its supporters, urging the company to ban cruel shrimp-farming practices, such as eyestalk ablation and ice slurry immersion,” the group said. “Tesco’s policy is a crucial step in alleviating some of the worst cruelty that billions of shrimp endure annually. We hope this commitment from Tesco will spur other retailers to recognize the importance of adopting more sustainable practices for all animals.”
Eyestalk ablation, which is a practice in which shrimp farmers remove one or both eyestalks in female shrimp to encourage them to develop mature ovaries and lay eggs, is a common practice in shrimp farming but has become a welfare concern. As a result, only post-larvae sourced from non-ablated female broodstock will be accepted into Tesco supply chains from 2026 onward for whiteleg shrimp and 2027 onward for tiger prawns.
As for ice slurry immersion – a method in which shrimp are immersed in salt water below 4 degrees Celsius before slaughter and which some experts say does not properly stun shrimp – only a minority of Tesco’s shrimp are stunned using this method, with strict monitoring conditions of ice slurry temperatures and water conditions in place, Tesco said.
"However, we recognize and support the move to the use of electrical stunning of decapod crustaceans as a more effective and humane method,” the retailer said.
For whiteleg shrimp, Tesco has already implemented …
