Commitment to Animal Welfare

Jim, Senior Animal Welfare Manager

For over 110 years, H-E-B has integrated the respectful treatment of animals throughout all facets of our business. Our commitment to food sustainability and the care of animals is embedded in H-E-B’s culture and values as we continuously raise the standards for animal welfare among our vendor community. It is important to us that all animals used in our products are given the best quality of care and respect throughout the food cycle.

H-E-B has a long standing commitment to offer the best quality foods sourced from trusted suppliers, using best practices in animal treatment. Our team personally visits and inspects all of our H-E-B brand suppliers. We require that all vendor animal welfare programs meet or exceed industry best practices and they share the values H-E-B demonstrates. Acts of abuse are not tolerated and reported incidents are investigated thoroughly.

The physical well-being, mental well-being and the ability for animals to express natural behaviors is important to the sustainability and quality of food. Animals should have nutritious feed, receive timely medical care and humane euthanasia. Caretakers should enrich the lives of animals and all practices must minimize animal fear, pain, and distress. H-E-B believes that animals should be raised in a manner that encourages and supports expressions of natural behaviors.

H-E-B continuously monitors the latest in scientific research findings for industry issues and improvement opportunities in the production systems across the animals’ life cycles. We use academia, industry and animal welfare experts, as well as our own internal expertise, to define our initiatives for improving the animals’ quality of life.