Corporate Governance (Animal Welfare 2025 External version)

Introduction

This policy covers all products of animal origin purchased by Premier Foods or a subsidiary of Premier Foods.

We believe that an animal's welfare, whether on farm, in transit, at market or at a place of slaughter needs to be considered to ensure no unnecessary suffering. We acknowledge farm animals as sentient beings and recognise that good animal welfare encompasses not only good health and physical wellbeing, but good mental wellbeing and the ability to express species-specific behaviours.

We have therefore included a 6th Freedom as an addition to the Farm Animal Welfare Committees' (FAWC) stated 'Five Freedoms' in order to safeguard and improve welfare within the proper constraints of an effective livestock industry:

We require our suppliers of beef, pork, lamb, poultry, dairy products, and eggs (UK and globally) to support the following freedoms:

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.

2. Freedom from discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.

3. Freedom from pain, injury, or disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.

4. Freedom to express normal behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities, and company of the animal's own kind.

5. Freedom from fear and distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

6. Freedom to undergo positive experiences - by providing appropriate conditions to experience positive emotions and encourage natural behaviour.

   We have several additional key policies that our suppliers of animal products must comply with. These are as follows:

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   • Avoidance of genetic engineering and cloning. It is our policy that animal products from cloned or genetically modified animals and their offspring will not be used in our food products.
   • Avoidance of growth promoting substances. We specify that no growth promoting substances (defined as any substance used deliberately for the purpose of growth promotion that is administered to the animal as a drug or is present as an additive in feed and is not a normal dietary nutrient, the main known examples being growth promoting hormones, beta agonists, and non-therapeutic use of antibiotics for growth promotion) are used in the rearing or treatment of animals.
   • Pasture Grazed Dairy Herds. Premier Foods stipulate a minimum of 120 days per year access for pasture grazed dairy herds.
   • Avoidance of the use of Monkeys in Coconut Plantations. Premier Foods does not purchase coconut products from plantations where monkeys are used to harvest coconuts.
   • Non-Caged Eggs. We do not source eggs from caged production systems.
   • Avoidance of euthanising bull calves: Premier Foods prohibit the practice of bull calf euthanasia unless necessary in cases of severe injury, disease or to relieve an animal's pain and suffering where it is unfit to travel for slaughter and / or will not benefit from appropriate veterinarian treatment.
   • Other Inhumane Practices: Our suppliers must have a clear commitment to ending the use of other inhumane practices such as culling of day-old male chicks in egg supply chains.

     Animal Welfare Goals

     In addition to the above requirements, we are committed to working with our suppliers to achieve the following goals by 2025. Our current position on these goals is set out in the Responsibility section (animal welfare) of our corporate website.

     • Long distance transport: Our suppliers must ensure that all live animal transportation is kept to a minimum and to avoid long distance transport. We specify a maximum transport time of 8 hours
     • Long distance transport Poultry: Our suppliers must ensure that all live animal transportation is kept to a minimum and to avoid long distance transport. We specify a maximum transport time of 4 hours.
     • Livestock being kept in close confinement: Our suppliers must avoid the close confinement of all animals including the use of cages, sow stalls, farrowing crates, veal crates, and the tethering of animals.
     • Routine Surgical Intervention: Our suppliers must avoid routine mutilations such as teeth clipping, tail docking, castration, beak trimming, dehorning and mulesing where possible. The use of surgical interventions must only be undertaken to prevent suffering, pain, disease or injury and the use of appropriate pain relief or anaesthetic must be applied.
     • Inhumane slaughter of animals: In particular, our suppliers must use effective pre-slaughter stunning
     • Antibiotics: In addition to compliance with specific legislation protecting consumers from exposure to residues of veterinary medicines, pesticides and environmental contaminants in food, we will work with our supply base to reduce the levels of use of veterinary medicinal products and other pharmacological active substances used to treat animals (e.g. antibiotics) and require that our suppliers develop animal production systems that are not reliant on the

       routine use of antibiotics for disease prevention. We have incorporated the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA) principles on antibiotics into this policy to avoid the routine use of antibiotics for prophylactics and metaphylactics across all animals in our supply chain. We will also ensure that highest priority critically important antibiotics, as defined by European Medicines Agency (EMA), are only used as a last resort, when needed to safeguard animal welfare and no alternative treatment option is available.

     • Environment Enrichment: Our suppliers must provide specific-species enrichment for animals to encourage natural behaviours. For example, for egg-laying hens this can include perches and pecking substrates, for cattle, brushes, and shade.
     • Better Chicken Commitment: Premier Foods have committed to achieve the 'Better Chicken Commitment' Goals by 2026. We will require all our suppliers of broiler chicken meat to meet the following requirements:

       • Comply with all EU animal welfare laws and regulations, regardless of the country of production.

       • Implement a maximum stocking density of 30kg/m2or less.

       • Adopt breeds that demonstrate higher welfare outcomes.

       • Meet improved environmental standards including:

         • At least 50 lux of light, including natural light.

         • At least two metres of usable perch space, and two pecking substrates, per 1,000 birds.

         • On air quality, the requirements of Annex 2.3 of the EU broiler directive

         • No cages or multi-tier systems.

   • Adopt controlled atmospheric stunning using inert gas or multi-phase systems, or effective electrical stunning without live inversion.

   • The Farm Animal Welfare team will report annually on progress towards this commitment.

Governance & Management

Farm Animal Welfare sits within the Planet Pillar of our Enriching Life governance structure which is overseen at board level. It is at this forum where a wide range of ethical issues, including animal welfare, are discussed and policy reviewed. Our central procurement team are responsible for the day-to-day management, and effective implementation, of our farm animal welfare policy.

To ensure compliance with our policy, we require all our suppliers to complete a set of questions, on their approach to the management of animal welfare issues, as set out in our raw material specifications via our online supplier portal. In the event of non-compliance with the requirements of our animal welfare policy, appropriate and time-bound, corrective action will be agreed with the supplier. If the supplier is unable to meet Premier Food's requirements, their contract will be terminated.

In addition to this, we have integrated farm animal welfare into our procurement strategies, tender documents, and suppliers' contractual obligations. We review supplier's performance against our

animal welfare policy on an annual basis via supplier meetings & questionnaires. We also complete spot checks on suppliers by farm visits using a comprehensive checklist approach.

25.09.2026

This policy to be next reviewed on: