Ethically conscious shoppers in the UK will be pleased to know that ALDI has recently been awarded cruelty free certification on cleaning products by an international animal welfare organisation.
The Leaping Bunny certification, which most people will recognise as Cruelty Free International’s stamp of approval, will appear on all of ALDI’s own brand household cleaning products. ALDI is known for their focus on animal welfare and sustainability and even without the certification and their policy has included an animal testing policy for some time stating that:
‘It is our policy in the UK and Ireland that all of our own-label cosmetics, toiletries and household products and their ingredients must not be tested on animals.’
The supermarket chain is the UK’s fifth largest and comprises of over 700 stores nationwide. This means the move to cruelty free certification will have a large impact on the number of cruelty free products in people’s homes without consumers having to change their shopping habits. This is a huge step for people concerned with animal welfare who don’t believe that products tested on animals should be available anywhere.
Communications Director for Aldi UK, Mary Dunn, has commented that the decision was made with consumers in mind: “By partnering with Cruelty Free International to have its globally recognised Leaping Bunny logo on our products, we’re making it even easier for our customers to make informed decisions about their shopping.”
ALDI isn’t the first UK supermarket to receive the Leaping Bunny stamp and instead will be joining the likes of Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Superdrug.
However, many companies who are currently Leaping Bunny Certified are also associated with high prices where consumers are invited to comprise on cost in place of quality. ALDI is known for being a discount store and features weekly changes to their non food items where you can pick up clothes, books and kitchen equipment at very low prices. If ALDI is capable of going cruelty free it shows that making the ethical choice when out shopping does not mean having to spend more money, something many people are concerned about given the unstable economy in the UK.
Having the Leaping Bunny feature on so many products across the UK does show a shift in public awareness of animal testing and could indicate the beginning of the end of it. If companies like ALDI can see the value in going cruelty free, it abolishes the idea that animal welfare concerns are an issue for the privileged members of society who can pick and choose their products. Less wealthy consumers are undoubtedly a much bigger portion of the British public UK and it would make sense for other discount supermarkets to follow suit.
Many cosmetics companies are also choosing to be transparent in their labelling with companies as big as Max Factor allowing consumers to discover whether each individual product on their website has vegan friendly ingredients (unfortunately though, they are not yet cruelty free).
It is unclear yet as to whether the products will also be suitable for vegans although ALDI has been praised in the past for it’s efforts to label it’s vegan food products and they even have a page on their site dedicated to the vegan diet so labelling non food items would be the logical next step for the supermarket.
Image Credit: Cosmetics Business
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