This is a buyers' guide from Ethical Consumer, the UK's leading alternative consumer organisation. Since 1989 we've been researching and recording the social and environmental records of companies, and making the results available to you in a simple format.
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Score Ratings
Our ratings are live updated scores from our primary research database. They are based on primary and secondary research across 19 categories. Find out more about our ethical ratings.
Score table
The score table shows simple numerical ratings for each product.
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Full Scorecard
The Full Scorecard shows the 'black marks' for each product, by each of the 19 categories. The bigger the mark, the worse the score. So for example a big black circle under 'Worker Rights' shows that the company making this product has been severely criticised for worker abuses.
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Customising Rating Scores
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Stories and Data behind the scores
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As our ratings are constantly updated, it is possible that company ratings on the ethiscore website may have changed since this report was written.
Cream O'Galloway and September Organic are the best buys. Both brands are organic with Cream O'Galloway making a Fairtrade and organic variety.
Nestle ice creams (which includes Mister Softee and The Skinny Cow brands) were sold to Richmond Foods but Nestle retained ownership of the brands and Richmond pays them a royalty for using them. Richmond also owns the Treats brand and under that name it manufactures Ribena ice lollies under licence to drug company GlaxoSmithKline, the owner of the Ribena brand.
Ben & Jerry's was renowned for making social and environmental stands. Amongst much controversy, Unilever bought them in 2000 — the L'Oreal buying Body Shop of its day. There has been criticism that Ben & Jerry's ethical stance has been watered down. At the top of the table is a small company just making organic ice cream. Look out for other companies like this in your area.