The Tesco Lamb Range

Lamb production is one of the most traditional methods of farming within the UK. Sheep can graze on poorer pastures and are particularly important to upland areas such as Wales, Scotland, and parts of Northern and South West England. Lambs are traditionally born in spring, and spend the spring and summer at grass with their mothers. “New Seasons” lamb starts to become available from April onwards, and are the youngest and most tender lamb. Lambs which are born later in the year are either housed in straw-bedded barns, or kept in sheltered fields with root crops over the Autumn and Winter and marketed later in the year. 

We also sell New Zealand lamb, predominantly in the winter months, when their “new seasons” lambs are available.

We have 3 different standards of production for lamb at Tesco:

Standard/ Value lambs
Finest lambs
Organic lambs

Tesco Standard / Value Lamb

All our standard lambs are sourced from independently audited farm-assured holdings in the UK and New Zealand. These farms have committed to meeting high standards of husbandry, including veterinary health planning, and using trained stockmen to regularly check the welfare of all the sheep in their care. Our suppliers try to use lambs farmed as close to them as possible, and adhere to strict maximum transportation times. We sell a mixture of lowland and hill breeds of sheep, to meet different weight specifications.

Tesco Finest Lamb

The seasonality of farming is most obvious in sheep farming- the lambing season starts earliest in the South West with their warmer climate, and moves North through the country as the year goes on.

We wanted to create a range which allows us to highlight to our customers when the lamb from certain regions was at its very best, in terms of flavour and tenderness.

Our range includes lambs from Cornwall and Devon, Wales, North of England and New Zealand, and we select the very best from those regions to go into our packs. We use Cornish lamb from April to July, Welsh lamb from July to October, North of England lamb from October to January, and New Zealand lamb from January to March.

Tesco Organic Lamb

Our organic lambs come from farms which are audited by one of the organic farm accreditation bodies, such as Soil Association or Organic Farmers and Growers. Organic sheep 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 or antibiotics.

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

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