Our soy commitment

What is soy/soya - and what do I call it?

Soya and soy are the same ingredient but when it’s used in food and animal feed products the food industry calls it soy. 99% of the soy we use as a business is used as animal feed in supply chains rather than a meat-free product, because it’s high in protein.

Our soy footprint

Our soy footprint is the amount of soy we use in Co-op products, both directly and indirectly as animal feed. We report our soy footprint on an annual basis in our sustainability report.

Co-op’s ambition

In line with our Future of Food ambition, we take a responsible sourcing approach to all the ingredients we use in our products - including the animal and fish feed used in producing them. Working to tackle deforestation and conversion is also a key part of our Climate Plan.

We recognise that soy can be linked to negative impacts on the environment and communities, particularly deforestation and land conversion when not sourced responsibly.

Our ambition is that all soy used in Co-op products, including embedded in animal feed, will be deforestation and conversion free (with a cut-off date of 2020). Our aim was to achieve this by the end of 2025.

We have not yet reached this goal but we retain our commitment and will continue to work towards deforestation and conversion-free sourcing, supporting interventions that deliver positive impacts in production landscapes, and addressing drivers of land use change in high-risk sourcing regions.

More detail on the progress industry has made and the challenges and limits of voluntary action that have limited this is available here.

Our approach

We know change needs to happen at scale to both enable the changes in our supply chains and to tackle deforestation and conversion. We work in collaborative groups - Retail Soy Group and The UK Sustainable Commodities Initiative to increase transparency and engage with the wider industry.

We were a founding signatory of the UK Soy Manifesto (UKSM), which aimed to ensure all physical shipments of soy to the UK are deforestation and conversion free by the end of 2025.

We are also signatories to WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment to Nature - working to halve the environmental impact of UK Baskets by 2030.

Sourcing

Since 2021, we've covered our own brand soy footprint with regional Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) credits as a minimum. Other sourcing standards include physically certified through mass balance or segregated models and low-risk origin sourcing. A full breakdown of proportions is available in our sustainability report.

We are working with our suppliers to achieve our ambition and looking at ways we can support landscape approaches - you can read our full policy here. Alignment is crucial and we are supportive of the industry development of credible monitoring, verification and reporting systems.

Our commitment applies to all suppliers of our own brand products. However, initial engagement is focusing on our fresh protein suppliers, who account for around 70% of our soy footprint.

Innovation

We engage with suppliers feed companies to work towards more sustainable feed, including opportunities for innovative feed solutions and alternatives.

Advocacy/Campaigning

• Signatory to the UK Soy Manifesto - working to ensure all physical shipments of soy to the UK to be deforestation and conversion free with a cut-off date of 2020.

• Founding member of the UK Roundtable for Sustainable Soy – The roundtable brings together stakeholders the UK soya market, providing a pre-competitive space for companies and industry associations to work together to achieve a shared goal of a secure, resilient, sustainable supply of soya to the UK.

• Member, Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS) – The Round Table on Responsible Soy is a civil organization that promotes responsible production, processing and trading of soy on a global level.

• We've engaged with soy traders to improve transparency (vital to addressing risks in soy) and advocated for the protection of the Amazon.

Reporting

We continue to report openly on our progress, actions and remaining challenges. This includes information on the soy used and its sourcing standards and origin in our annual sustainability report.