Sainsbury’s is among the largest and best-known supermarket chains in the UK. In this report we ask: do its ethics stand up to scrutiny?
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Learn more about our company profiles →Our research highlights several ethical issues with Sainsbury’s, including poor animal welfare in its dairy supply chain, likely use of tax avoidance, and limited action to tackle packaging waste.
Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Sainsbury’s overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.
The supermarket scores poorly in Ethical Consumer’s packaging rating.
No evidence could be found that Sainsbury’s has reduced overall packaging in its own operations, although it did state that it had achieved a "17.5% absolute reduction in our own brand plastic packaging year on year" (from a 2018 baseline for food, and 2020 baseline for general merchandise).
The supermarket also states, “We will be working alongside our suppliers, manufacturers, customers and other retailers to reduce the amount of plastic across the supply chain”. However, it gives no detail of steps it has already taken to ensure overall packaging reductions.
Sainsbury’s scores very poorly in Ethical Consumer’s ratings when it comes to the animal welfare of cows in its dairy supply chain.
The supermarket sells some organic dairy products, but the rest of its range has no welfare certification. Although the supermarket complies with Red Tractor standards, its requirements only ensure that the animal lived in the UK and was treated in line with legal minimums.
Sainsbury’s does have some meaningful policies in place, for example addressing the killing of ‘surplus’ calves. In the dairy industry, it is common for male calves to be killed on farms shortly after birth and disposed of, because they cannot produce milk and therefore are not profitable to keep alive. But Sainsbury’s said that it had banned this practice except if approved on a case-by-case basis. Instead, the male calves must be transitioned into for example the beef supply chain.
However, the company has received multiple criticisms from animal welfare organisations over conditions in its supply chain, including of Muller, which was its main supplier for Sainsbury’s own brand milk as of 2024.
For example, in March 2023, an undercover investigation by animal rights group Viva! found that some dairy farms supplying Muller operated a "zero grazing" system where animals were kept inside under intensive conditions all year round.
The Business Benchmark for Animal Welfare rates companies based on their policies regarding treatment of animals. In the 2023 report, Muller was placed in the bottom tier, for not demonstrating “any evidence that animal welfare was on its business agenda”.
Sainsbury’s receives a middling score in Ethical Consumer’s workers rights rating.
The company has a policy for suppliers outlining workers’ rights expectations, which covers most basic criteria such as no use of forced labour, no discrimination and the right to join unions is protected. It has published a list of all its immediate suppliers – a major step towards better transparency, to allow workers, unions, and campaign groups to hold it to account.
The company has explicitly acknowledged that purchasing practices have an effect on workers’ rights in its supply chain. It said: "We recognise that stable business relationships contribute towards the observance of good labour practices and we endeavour to establish long-term and productive relationships with our suppliers. We are committed to dealing openly and fairly with suppliers, adhering to contract terms and avoiding the exertion of undue pressure."
Commitments like these are important in the food sector, where poor purchasing practices – such as cancelling contracts, providing little advance warning of demand, or changing the amounts purchased at late notice – have caused major issues for suppliers, workers and farmers. That said, all the major supermarkets face criticism for unfair dealings with farmers, for example through Riverford’s Get Fair About Farming campaign which claims supermarkets misuse their buying power, creating stressful and unprofitable circumstances for supplier farms.
Campaign and civil society groups have also found workers’ rights issues and major risks in some of its supply chains. For example, in 2023, Ethical Consumer published a report called ‘Produce of Exploitation’, which outlined extreme risks of exploitation in regions of southern Spain supplying fruit and vegetables to the UK. Migrant workers, many of them undocumented, routinely faced underpayment, discrimination, and in some areas forced labour, among other issues. None of the supermarkets in the UK, including Sainsbury’s, had taken adequate steps to address the issue.
More recently Sainsbury’s has begun publishing the names of Spanish farms on a significant portion of its fresh fruit and vegetables, demonstrating greater transparency than the other major supermarkets.
Sainsbury’s is also a major clothes retailer, through its supermarket stores, and has taken some steps towards more sustainable fabric use.
For example, over half of its materials are described as “more sustainable”, such as recycled synthetics polyester and nylon, and Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) cotton – a certification that includes some sustainability requirements.
Sainsbury's also does not use Turkmen cotton – an important step to avoid forced labour in clothing supply chains. According to the Anti-Slavery International website, viewed in April 2022, Turkmenistan is the 12th largest exporter of cotton in the world. Each year, tens of thousands of citizens are forced to participate in cotton picking, and parents often have to recruit their children in order to meet quotas.
The company has also taken steps to tackle water use and pollution from fabric production. It states, "We are signatories to [waste action organisation] WRAP’s Textiles 2030 initiative, which brings together businesses to collaborate on carbon and water targets, and contribute to discussions around policy development for textiles in the UK. Each year we submit our fibre tonnage data and receive an individual report allowing us to interrogate the impact of our sourcing, manufacture, and design.”
Sainsbury’s scores poorly in Ethical Consumer’s tax avoidance category.
The company owns multiple subsidiaries in tax havens, including Guernsey and the Isle of Man. These subsidiaries did not appear to serve the local population, and Sainsbury’s has not provided any tax data or an explanation for these subsidiaries to show that it is not engaging in tax avoidance strategies.
The text above was written July 2025, and most research was conducted between February and June 2024.
Contact Sainbury's to ask that they commit to improving conditions on supplier farms in Southern Spain
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