Marks and Spencer has become the first major retailer to source its fresh milk from RSPCA Assured dairy farms.

All M&S fresh milk packaging will carry the RSPCA Assured logo*.

The RSPCA welfare standards for dairy cows have to be met for milk to be labelled RSPCA Assured.

The welfare standards cover cattle for their entire lives, including when being transported, and cover health, diet, environment and care.

The standards include requirements like:

• Cows must be provided with enough space and bedding to allow them to lie down and get up without injuring themselves
• They must also have environmental enrichment (eg cow brushes) they can use to groom and scratch themselves.

RSPCA Assured assessors and RSPCA farm livestock officers check welfare standards are met.

Find out more from assessor Alex Mackellar:

Find out more

There is more information about dairy cow welfare on the RSPCA Assured farm animal welfare pages.

You can read more about M&S dairy farms on their website.

Look out for RSPCA Assured milk in M&S!

* This covers more than 40 products - all Simply M&S branded milk (one, two and four pints, skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole fat), all fresh milkshakes and the milk used used in M&S cafés. It excludes M&S organic milk as this isn't supplied by the M&S milk pool. The organic milk supplier farms follow Soil Association standards on animal welfare and feed.