EXCLUSIVE: Industry figures have warned that new welfare rules for crabs and lobsters could see a drop in restaurants using fresh produce.
British restaurants could use frozen imported lobster and crab under new welfare rules. (Image: Getty)
British restaurants could be forced to use frozen imported crab and lobster under Labour‘s new animal welfare rules, industry figures have warned. The Government will publish guidance on appropriate methods of killing shellfish, in line with welfare legislation for sentient beings, later this year. The guidance could endorse just two killing methods as humane – electrical stunning before cooking and mechanical killing through double spiking for crabs and full-length body spiking for lobsters and langoustines.
Simon Leigh-Jones, who owns English’s, a family-run seafood restaurant in Brighton, will have to either spend £3,500 on stunning equipment, stop serving whole lobster or pivot to frozen produce under the new rules. “We’ve always tried to lead with animal welfare, but crustaceans are tricky,” he told the Express. “We serve lobsters in the shell, put to order, so we’ve got to cook them whole. We’ll buy the stunning equipment because we can just about afford it, but many restaurants will struggle. As well as costing thousands of pounds, this process will take more time and require more resources. That’s significant after the Government’s increases to wages and National Insurance (NI).”
Fresh seafood could be edged out by frozen imports in UK restaurants. (Image: Getty)
David Jarrad, CEO of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (SAGB), echoed his concerns. He said: “I have told chefs and restaurants: ‘The likelihood is you’re going to have to longitudinally split lobsters from nose to tail with a big knife or buy an electric stunning machine that costs over £3,000’.
“The response is almost always: ‘I haven’t got room for that in my kitchen. I don’t have the time or money. I’ll just have to buy frozen.”
While some restaurants will pivot to UK produce, the shift could exacerbate an existing reliance on foreign imports, which already account for around 80% of the seafood consumed in the UK, he added.
“There is domestic demand for British shellfish; we just don’t have the infrastructure to meet it,” he said. “Supermarkets largely import seafood, so smaller restaurants are one of the last ways we have of accessing consumers.”
The trend goes the other way, too: Britain exported almost half a million tonnes of seafood in 2024, with shellfish accounting for around 19%.
The owner of a UK fishery who wanted to remain anonymous said they are already selling a high percentage of shellfish stock to European markets, including Spain and Portugal, and could increase the uptake if demand for live produce in Britain drops.
Robin Hancock said the new guidance presented a further ‘burden’ to the hospitality sector. (Image: Robin Hancock/The Wright Brothers)
“This will push more of our produce abroad because it’s a lot less hassle to sign the paperwork with live animals and ship them across in saltwater tanks,” they said.
“It just makes economic sense for us. But it leaves restaurants in a difficult position, where they can’t do much other than spend a lot of money, take shellfish off the menu or look at cheaper exports from abroad.”
Robin Hancock, co-founder of sustainable London-based food brand The Wright Brothers, which runs three restaurants and supplies wholesale to hundreds of others, said his business is already “on its knees” after consecutive price rises.
Net profit margins across the sector currently average between 2% and 6% following hikes in energy bills, business rates, NI and the minimum wage, alongside food inflation, which has risen 40% since 2020.
“Things like this just become another burden,” Mr Hancock said. “I know of one restaurant group that uses a lot of lobster and has already switched to importing halves.
“We’re surrounded by incredible oceans full of incredible seafood, and we might be prevented from eating it.”
Decapod crustaceans have technically been recognised as sentient animals since the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill was passed in 2022, but the upcoming guidelines will be the first attempt to lay out specific criteria under the 2015 Welfare at Time of Killing (WATK) Act.
As restaurants prepare to take drastic measures to dodge potential cost hikes, experts have praised the Government for taking a progressive approach to shellfish welfare.
Robert Elwood, emeritus professor of animal behaviour at Queen’s University Belfast, has been investigating the question of pain and sentience in crustaceans for 20 years and said the stunning and mechanical killing methods should be common practices across global food production.
“There is no absolute proof that any animal experiences pain, but there’s a lot of evidence supporting the idea of sentience in crustaceans in the same way we think about it for cats and dogs,” he said.
“We should be slaughtering them in humane ways, which means bringing about a destruction of the central nervous system as quickly as possible.”
While countries including Vietnam and Norway have already introduced similar electric stunning techniques, Mr Elwood said the upcoming guidance should be accompanied by new regulations on imported shellfish to ensure welfare standards aren’t undercut.
“If regulations are brought in about how lobsters and crabs are killed in the UK, we should absolutely ensure that imported material meets those same standards,” he said. “That should be a demand – that all crustaceans are killed humanely.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “As outlined in the Animal Welfare Strategy, we are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and will work with the sector to improve the welfare of crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters.”