Tesco has suspended salmon supply from Bakkafrost’s Portree Farm on the Isle of Skye after undercover footage revealed alleged welfare failings.
The footage, recorded by the Green Britain Foundation between 7 and 13 October, revealed allegedly diseased fish being dumped into the sea and salmon left to suffocate beyond the time allowed under RSPCA Assured welfare rules.
The footage was allegedly captured during a major disease outbreak at the farm, in which 170,000 salmon died in a single week. The charity said Bakkafrost continued harvesting for human consumption throughout, with some of that fish then sold under the Tesco Finest label.
“Diseased fish dumped into open water in a Scottish loch, becoming food for wild animals and a source of infection, is bad enough, but continuing to pull salmon out of the same farm for supply to consumers of Tesco’s Finest and Co-op’s Irresistible range is something else,” said Green Britain Foundation director Dale Vince.
“Bakkafrost’s Portree site is a crime scene – environmental, biosecurity and consumer safety regulations have all been thrown into the fish shredder,” he added.
The Green Britain Foundation praised Tesco’s decision to suspend the site.
“We take animal welfare extremely seriously, and we expect all our suppliers to adhere to our high welfare standards,” said a Tesco spokesperson. “As soon as we were made aware of this concerning footage, we immediately suspended the farm to carry out an investigation with our supplier.
“Any failure to meet our high welfare standards is unacceptable and we take swift action where necessary.”
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The Co-op, which sourced less than half a per cent of its total salmon volume from the site until October 2025, said:“Providing responsibly sourced fish is incredibly important to us and all our Scottish salmon is RSPCA Assured, in line with the rigorous standards we set for our suppliers, we are not sourcing fish from this site, and our shoppers should be reassured that any indication of poor standards would be immediately investigated and, where required, action taken.”
The supermarket confirmed it had only sourced healthy fish from Portree.
Regulators, including the Fish Health Inspectorate and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, are now reviewing the allegations, the Scottish government said.
“Animal welfare is a top priority for us, and we take any breaches of animal welfare legislation extremely seriously,” an APHA spokesperson said. “We investigate every allegation that is reported to us and will always take appropriate action where we find non-compliances with animal welfare regulations.”
The Green Britain Foundation has said it will supply full evidence to investigators and that it expects urgent enforcement where breaches are confirmed.
Bakkafrost has been approached for comment.
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