A salmon fillet in an Ocado Own Range chilled pack. A bag of frozen prawns. A tin of tuna used in a ready meal. These are everyday grocery items, but behind them sits a supply chain that Ocado Retail has now committed to holding to a higher standard.
WHAT THE POLICY COVERS
Ocado Retail, the UK’s largest online-only supermarket and a joint venture between Marks & Spencer and Ocado Group, has published an updated seafood sourcing policy under its Sourcing with Integrity program. The policy applies to all farmed fish and crustaceans within the Ocado Own Range across chilled, frozen, and ambient categories, as well as fish used as an ingredient in Ocado food products.
The updated policy requires suppliers to track water conditions daily, covering temperature, pH, oxygen, ammonia, and carbon dioxide levels alongside disease and mortality rates. It requires disease prevention through vaccination and treatment of outbreaks with medication. Most significantly, it mandates that all slaughter use electrical or percussion/mechanical stunning to produce instant insensibility, followed by death while insensate.
For wild-caught suppliers, the policy sets expectations to reduce pre-slaughter mortality, lower bycatch rates, and minimize the time aquatic animals spend out of water.
The policy aligns with the Model Seafood Welfare Standard, endorsed by a dozen animal protection organizations working in the sector.
WHERE OCADO SITS IN A BROADER SHIFT
Ocado joins a growing group of retailers and food service companies that have set formal seafood welfare policies in recent years. UK peers Sainsbury’s and Co-op, as well as international retailers Costco and S Group, have established similar standards. On the food service side, companies including Pret a Manger, DO&CO, gategroup, and Espresso House have made comparable commitments.
For fish and crustaceans, which are often slaughtered without stunning or left to suffocate in open air, these policies represent a concrete shift in how the food industry handles aquatic animals. Ocado’s update extends that shift further into the UK’s online grocery market.
