Delamere dairy has spoken out in defence of one of its goats milk suppliers, which was branded cruel in a Daily Mail exposé last week.

Last Friday, the paper reported on undercover footage filmed by vegan campaign group, Viva! at two goat farms, one of which - Upper Enson Farm in Staffordshire - supplies goats milk to Delamere Dairy.

The article labelled the farm “cruel” after claiming goat horns had been discovered being burned off with a metal tool at one of the farms and that dead goats had been found.

However, Delamere MD Ed Salt told The Grocer that he stood by the farm’s owners.

“We take welfare very seriously and if that farm had at any stage been found to have shown any level of animal cruelty, we would have stopped taking milk from them 10 years ago.” He confirmed that Delamere had not suffered any delistings.

The Co-op Group, which sells Delamere products, said it supported any work undertaken by Delamere to “put in place corrective steps that may be required”.

Sainsbury’s, which also lists Delamere, said it had launched “investigations”.