Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have suspended supplies from a Cranswick-owned Lincolnshire pig farm, after undercover footage allegedly showed serious animal welfare breaches.

The footage, captured by campaign group Animal Justice Project (AJP) and reported by the Mail on Sunday, appears to show distressing scenes from Northmoor Farm, a facility supplying Cranswick, one of the UK’s largest pork producers.

The secretly-filmed footage at the site, which houses about 6000 pigs, shows a female pig being kicked and beaten with metal bars, and a failed attempt at a killing with a bolt gun, which left the animal in pain.

In the recording, a worker can be heard telling an undercover investigator: “Don’t let nobody see you doing like what we did.”

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The footage was recorded over several weeks last year, with AJP having filed a formal complaint with Trading Standards over breaches of Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing regulations.

AJP founder Claire Palmer said: “We are demanding immediate enforcement of the ban on blunt force trauma and the prosecution of Cranswick. There must be an independent public inquiry into pig farming practices and regulatory failures.”

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda all reported that they had paused supplies from the farm, while Cranswick confirmed that the facility’s entire team had been suspended while an investigation takes place.

A spokesperson for Cranswick added: “The welfare of the animals we rear is of the utmost importance and we are extremely disappointed to see the unacceptable lapse of welfare standards captured at Northmoor Farm.

“As soon as we saw the footage, we immediately suspended the team working at the farm and we are conducting an urgent and thorough investigation. We have also suspended the farm from supplying any pigs until the investigation is completed.”

In recent years, there have been several instances of animal abuse at suppliers to the UK’s largest retailers.

Last year, Tesco was forced to suspend one of its Red Tractor farm suppliers while facing a backlash from campaigners, after footage depicted cases of alleged extreme and “abysmal” animal abuse.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Morrisons made the decision to switch its own-brand coconut milk range to a new supplier following reports of forced monkey labour in Thailand’s coconut industry.