Tesco Dairy Standards

Our Agriculture team has a dedicated Dairy Agricultural Manager who is responsible for the day to day communications with our dairy farmers. As well as hosting Producer meetings and conferences across the country, last April we launched the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Project (TSDP), which allows us to work more closely with our producers to identify and focus on what’s important, that commercially delivers on farm.

12 dairy farmers from across the UK have been selected for the project, and have identified four key pillars to focus on. These are; Herd Health Planning, Environment, Cattle Mobility and Calf Welfare. We have teamed up with Westpoint Veterinary Group and the Food Animal Initiative (FAI) to deliver improvements to animal welfare, food quality/safety and environmental practices.

With have 3 type of fresh liquid milk available at Tesco, all produced on British dairy farms:

- Standard Milk
- Localchoice Milk
- Organic Milk

Tesco Standard Milk

All our standard fresh liquid milk is sourced direct from dedicated farm assured dairy farms, which are independently audited. Our farmers are committed to the highest standards of quality, animal husbandry and animal welfare through the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Project. Our farmers do not export any of their calves to veal crates on the continent.

In 2007, Tesco won the RSPCA Business Innovation Award for the new animal welfare requirements through our dairy initiative.

Localchoice Milk

Our Localchoice milk is produced on smaller, family run farms located in the same county or region as the Tesco store in which is it sold. Just like our standard milk producers, Localchoice farmers are committed to the highest animal welfare and environmental standards, which assures high quality and freshness.

Organic Milk

Our Organic milk comes from farms which are audited by one of the organic farm bodies, such as Soil Association or Organic Farmers and Growers. Organic dairy farmers only feed organic cereals and manage their pasture land without using artificial fertilisers and pesticides. They also have strict veterinary health plans which minimise their requirements to use medicines and antibiotics.

To demonstrate our long term support for the British organic dairy industry, we offset some of the cost of dairy farmers converting their farm to organic and pay their annual certification fee.

For further detailed technical information on Tesco Dairy standards please click here

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