Vienna, 02 April 2025 – A couple of minutes in the microwave and dinner is done – while ready-made meals enjoy a growing popularity, animals often bear the true cost of convenience. Many consumers are not aware that their ready meals might contain animal-cruelty by using animal derived products from factory farming and do cause more emissions than plant-based alternatives. With its latest ranking, the global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS has shown that the majority of the assessed leading food producers of ready meals, such as casseroles, frozen pizzas or canned soups, score poorly, when it comes to effective strategies for meat and dairy reduction towards improved animal welfare and climate mitigation. FOUR PAWS calls on food producers to live up to their responsibilities and reduce meat and dairy, eliminate cruel practices and increase plant-based ready meals.

The Ranking

Between July and November last year, FOUR PAWS assessed eleven international food producers (Bell Food Group, bofrost*, The Campbell’s Company, Conagra Brands, FRoSTA, GBFoods, heristo, Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Nomad Foods, Dr. August Oetker KG) to see if they had meat and dairy reduction strategies to improve animal welfare throughout their supply chains and lower their greenhouse gas emissions. It was also evaluated how they support the increase of plant-based alternatives. The assessment was based on publicly available information such as CSR and ESG policies and information provided by the food producers to FOUR PAWS.

Eight out of eleven food producers showed poor performance

While there were some positive tendencies, such as first steps to include meat and dairy reduction into strategies – more than 80% of the assessed food producers fell in the 'poor' and 'very poor' category. None of the ready meal producers achieved 'good' or 'very good' – the highest ranked companies (Dr. Oetker, Nestlé, FRoSTA) fell only into the 'average' category by fulfilling just over half the criteria.

Animal agriculture as a dominant driver of the climate crisis

Although animal agriculture is a dominant driver of the climate crisis and responsible for one sixth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, only two food producers (Conagra and Dr. Oetker) already had measures in place to reduce meat and dairy in their products. Dr. Oetker, for example, offered its consumers a CO₂ footprint calculator, which shows that its plant-based version of a Salami Pizza produces only just over half the CO₂ compared to the product using meat and other animal derived products.

Animal cruelty still an ingredient of ready meals

Every year, over 92 billion animals are exploited for food (meat, dairy, eggs) globally, the majority of them are kept in cruel conditions in factory farming. There, animals are suffering in high stocking densities, in extreme confinement with poor ventilation, never seeing the sun or feeling soil or grass. They are subjected to mutilations, such as tail docking, tethering and torture breeding – resulting in illnesses and pain – just to give a few examples of the gruesome conditions animals are living in. Despite this wide-spread cruelty, none of the food producers had a clear statement to phase out all animal products from factory farming throughout the entire supply chain of their products. In the animal welfare category, ten out of eleven food producers did not even fulfil half of the ranking’s criteria. However, some measures were taken. Nine companies had an animal welfare policy in place. Some took steps to reduce cruel practices. For example, several of the food producers had the goal of using cage-free eggs; Nestlé, Kraft Heinz and The Campbell’s Company had plans to end cage keeping of pigs; Nestlé and Kraft Heinz also wanted to end the tail docking, among other measures found during the ranking.

Growing appetite for plant-based meals

Simply increasing the number of plant-based dishes is not enough, as this does not automatically lead to a reduction of animal derived products nor to a decrease in the number of animals being farmed. However, the ranking positively noted that there is a growing appetite for plant-based alternatives, with all producers offering plant-based ready meals. Yet, it was also found that while some companies were reducing dairy and meat, they increased fish products in their portfolio. In the ranking, Kraft Heinz was the only food producer, who had a concrete and time-bound goal to permanently increase plant-based ready meals.