Global Food Companies Ban Animal Tests After Discussions With PETA
For the latest on whether these companies fund or conduct tests on animals, please check PETA’s “Eat Without Experiments” program.
Update: September 16, 2019
After hearing from PETA, Robertet SA, the world’s ninth-largest flavor and fragrance company, banned all curiosity-based testing on animals as well as experiments on animals that are designed to establish health claims for marketing products and ingredients and included the new policy in its official “Charter of Ethics.” Prior to taking this progressive action, it had participated with another company in a joint experiment on mice in which Robertet SA chemically analyzed a flavor compound while other experimenters fed the animals a high-fat diet to induce obesity, starved them, injected them with glucose, repeatedly took their blood, and killed and dissected them.
Update: September 10, 2019
After discussions with PETA, Pernod Ricard, the world’s second-largest wine and spirits company—with major brands including Absolut Vodka, Chivas Regal whiskey, Seagram’s Gin, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Malibu Rum, Jacob’s Creek wine, Pastis 51 apéritif, and Kenwood Vineyards wine—has established a new policy banning all curiosity-based testing on animals as well as experiments on animals that are designed to establish health claims for marketing products and ingredients.
Pernod Ricard is requiring all its supplier companies (numbering more than 1,600 at last count) to abide by the same policy, multiplying the impact that this victory will have and preventing more animals from suffering in laboratories.
Before this policy went into effect, the company and its experimentation facility, the Centre de Recherche Pernod Ricard, had conducted or donated products for use in animal experiments that more than 1,069 rats were subjected to. In one test, Pernod Ricard supplied apple extracts to experimenters who fed rats a human-type diet, force-fed them rat or human feces and apple extracts, injected them with a carcinogen that induces colon cancer, cut off their heads, and dissected them.
Update: August 23, 2019
After PETA pointed out to the Swilled Dog Hard Cider company that the apple pomace (a byproduct of cider production) that it had donated to a West Virginia University experimenter was used in cruel tests—in which 64 baby rats were fed a high-fat, high-sugar diet with or without apple pomace, starved overnight, killed by suffocation, and dissected—the West Virginia–based company quickly responded by establishing a policy against funding, conducting, and commissioning all curiosity-based testing on animals as well as experiments on animals that are designed to establish health claims for marketing products and ingredients.
Update: June 14, 2019
After discussions with PETA, food manufacturers Bonduelle Group, Concha y Toro, Grupo Peñaflor, Lactalis American Group, Rich Products Corporation, and Tata Global Beverages all confirmed to us that they neither conduct nor fund—nor have they previously pursued—animal testing to make health claims for marketing their products or ingredients.
Update: May 29, 2019
After nearly a year of discussions with PETA, Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd. (Nissui Group)—Japan’s second-largest fish-selling company and owner of Gorton’s Inc. (which sells frozen products in the U.S.)—has established a new policy banning animal tests for making health marketing claims.
From 2016 to 2018, Nissui Group conducted and funded cruel and deadly experiments on 303 animals. Experiments included starving rats and mice, force-feeding them substances like fish oil or nicotine, and inducing blood vessel aneurysms. These terrified animals were also forced to run and swim before being bled and killed.
After PETA wrote to Nissui explaining that these experiments are not required by law, the company replied to PETA stating that it will no longer conduct, fund, or commission any animal tests for health claims.
Update: December 6, 2018
After discussions with PETA, Milwaukee-based Sensient Technologies Corporation, a leading global manufacturer of flavors and fragrances and the world’s largest manufacturer of certified food colors, has enacted a new policy banning all curiosity-based testing on animals as well as experiments on animals that are designed to establish health claims for marketing products and ingredients.
Update: November 29, 2018
After discussions with PETA, Nagase & Co.—a trading firm based in Japan that deals in a wide range of products, including cosmetics and functional food ingredients—has agreed not to fund, conduct, or commission curiosity-based testing on animals as well as experiments on animals for the purpose of making health claims for marketing its food products and ingredients.
Update: November 12, 2018
After discussions with PETA, food manufacturers Saputo, SugarCreek, J&J Snack Foods, and Sanderson Farms all confirmed to us that they neither conduct nor fund—nor have they previously pursued—animal testing to make health claims for marketing their products or ingredients.
Update: November 6, 2018
After discussions with PETA, Flowers Foods—one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States and the maker of numerous brands, including Wonder, Tastykake, and Nature’s Own—established a progressive public policy banning animal testing (which it did not previously conduct or fund) and posted it on its website.
Update: October 25, 2018
After discussions with PETA, Molson Coors Brewing Company—one of the world’s largest brewers and the maker of many beer brands, including Coors Light, Molson Canadian, and Blue Moon—established a progressive public policy banning curiosity-based testing on animals as well as animal experiments used to make health claims for marketing products and ingredients, none of which it previously conducted or funded, and it posted the new policy on its website.
Update: October 18, 2018
After discussions with PETA, premium global chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli has established a progressive public policy banning animal testing used to make health claims—which it did not previously conduct or fund—and posted the new policy on its website.
Update: October 10, 2018
After discussions with PETA, McCain Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen French fries and potato specialties, has agreed to end tests on animals used to make health claims about its products. Many years ago, the company conducted and funded cruel experiments that involved locking pigs in cages and feeding them potatoes in order to analyze their feces and infecting rabbits with pathogenic potato bacteria so that they would develop antibodies that were then purified after blood was taken from their ears.
Additionally, after talking with PETA, Campbell Soup Company, the world’s largest soup producer, established a progressive public policy banning animal testing used to make health claims—which it had not previously conducted or funded—that will help influence its competitors to follow its example.
Update: September 25, 2018
After discussions with PETA, Megmilk Snow Brand Co., Ltd., a major food company based in Japan, has agreed to end animal tests used to make dubious health claims about its products! Previously, the company had funded and conducted cruel experiments on mice and rats, including one in which experimenters injected mice with a protein that causes arthritis, repeatedly force-fed or injected them with probiotics, took their blood, and then killed and dissected them. In another experiment, rats were starved for 17 hours, then fed Gouda cheese, starved again, and finally killed and dissected.
Update: September 05, 2018
After discussions with PETA, another food company has decided to end cruel and deadly tests on animals! Fuji Oil Holdings Inc.—a leading producer of oils, fats, confectionery ingredients, and soy—has confirmed that it will no longer fund, conduct, or commission tests on animals in order to make health claims about its products. In previous experiments funded and conducted by the company, rats and mice were starved, force-fed, and injected with and exposed to harmful chemicals. Then their necks were broken, and they were dissected.
Originally posted on August 27, 2018:
Japan’s largest meat supplier and its third-oldest sugar producer are the latest companies that PETA has persuaded to establish new policies banning cruel and deadly experiments on animals.
After discussions with PETA, multibillion-dollar global meat manufacturer NH Foods and multimillion-dollar sugar company Ensuiko Sugar Refining Co. have both agreed to stop conducting and funding animal experiments used to make dubious health claims about their products.
In 2016, NH Foods funded and published an experiment that was conducted on 20 mice. Experimenters fed the animals a collagen metabolite (made from chickens’ feet), took their blood, and killed and dissected them. The company currently has an animal-testing contract through 2020, but it has confirmed with PETA that once that contract ends, it’ll no longer conduct or fund experiments on animals.
In 2015, Ensuiko Sugar published an experiment that it conducted using 112 mice. Experimenters fed the mice a common sweetener, injected them with a flu virus through their noses, drained their blood, and killed and dissected them. At our request, the company confirmed that it won’t conduct or fund animal tests unless they’re legally required and posted the new policy on its website.
These major companies did right by animals by ditching unjustifiably violent experiments on them.
Like any other person, human or otherwise, these mice valued their lives. Up until the moment they were force-fed, drained of their blood, and killed, these individuals experienced unimaginable terror and would have done their best to escape torment and an untimely death. Vivisectors reduce complex individuals to laboratory equipment and take away their most fundamental right to life—in expensive and time-consuming experiments that when compared to a free and easy coin flip are five times worse at predicting the effectiveness of human clinical therapies.
These two companies join Asahi Group Holdings, Barilla, The Coca-Cola Company, Ezaki Glico, General Mills, House Foods, ITO EN, James White Drinks, Kewpie Corporation, Kikkoman, Lipton, Meiji Holdings, Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd., Ocean Spray, PepsiCo, POM Wonderful, Riken Vitamin, Sapporo Holdings, Satake Corporation, Suntory Holdings, Ltd., T. Hasegawa Co., Toyo Suisan Kaisha, Ltd., Welch’s, and Yakult Honsha, which have all ended experiments on animals for making health marketing claims after talking with PETA, sparing countless animals’ lives.
Speak Out Against Cruel, Wasteful Animal Tests
Right now at the University of Delaware, experimenter Tania Roth conducts cruel tests on vulnerable and sensitive rats, claiming to study child abuse. She’s forced alcohol down the throats of newborn rats. She’s stuffed pregnant mothers into tiny restraint tubes and blasted them with strobe lights. She’s purposely terrified rats by repeatedly shocking their feet. And she’s taken newborns away from their mothers and given them to other rats who are unable to care for them.
These experiments are irrelevant to human health but continue to receive public funding from your tax dollars. Using the button below, demand that the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development stop funding Roth’s experiments.
