Iceland has been criticised for lagging behind fellow supermarkets on the ethical sourcing of prawns, during a London protest demanding action on shrimp welfare.

Animal welfare campaigners gathered outside the frozen food specialist’s Greenwich store on Friday (6 June) in what organisers say was the world’s largest protest for prawn welfare.

The demonstration, led by the International Council for Animal Welfare (ICAW), attracted more than 70 attendees, including campaign mascot “Mr. Prawn”, who handed out leaflets and spoke with local shoppers.

The demonstration came amid the activists’ decision to call on grocery retailers Iceland, Aldi, Lidl and Asda to follow the lead of other UK supermarkets by banning controversial practices such as eye-stalk removal, a method often used to induce spawning, and suffocation without stunning.

“People are shocked to hear that prawns’ eyes are being cut off,” said JICAW head of invertebrate welfare policy Jonas Becker.

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“Even meat-eaters do not want animals to be treated like this. While the majority of UK supermarkets are introducing electrical stunning for all prawns, discounters such as Iceland, Aldi, and Lidl have stayed silent.”

The campaigners say the protest follows rising scientific concern over prawn sentience. Research from the London School of Economics and others has led to prawns being legally recognised as sentient under UK animal welfare law.

While Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, M&S, Ocado and Waitrose have all now committed to introducing electrical stunning for farmed prawns, campaigners say progress from value-led supermarkets has stalled.

According to estimates from ICAW based on Seafish UK data, UK supermarkets sell over 1.2 billion prawns a year, making them the nation’s most consumed farmed animal.

Campaigners argue that improved stunning protocols could reduce suffering by up to three hours per animal, citing research published earlier this year by McKay & McAuliffe.

In Crustacean Compassion’s 2024 “Snapshot Benchmark”, Iceland, Aldi, Lidl and Asda received some of the lowest scores for prawn welfare standards.

Iceland has been contacted for comment.