The two largest German discounters, Aldi and Lidl, want to significantly expand their range of products from better animal husbandry in the coming months. After Aldi announced at the beginning of the week that from spring 2024 it would only offer milk from the higher husbandry forms 3 and 4, competitor Lidl followed the example on Wednesday.
Aldi’s rival announced that the company would not only completely switch its own brands of fresh milk and lactose-free milk to husbandry forms 3 and 4 from the beginning of 2024 and would also take this step with long-life milk over the course of the year. In addition, between October 2023 and spring 2024, Lidl also intends to convert its entire range of fresh beef to at least level 3 of the four-level labeling system.
The husbandry system is a voluntary labeling system that a large part of the German food retail trade has been using for own-brand fresh meat products since 2019. The four levels – 1: stable housing, 2: stable housing plus, 3: outdoor climate and 4: premium – show consumers the level of animal welfare in housing.
The environmental protection organization Greenpeace only criticized in mid-July that the switch to meat from better animal husbandry was making little progress in the German food trade. According to the survey, the proportion of the two better husbandry forms 3 and 4 has only increased from a good 10 to almost 12 percent in private label retail since July 2022, the environmental protection organization reported at the time, citing a survey of major German food retailers. According to this, almost nine tenths of the meat supply was still accounted for by husbandry types 1 and 2.
Lidl announcement Aldi announcement
