WWF's Soy Scorecard awarded top marks to Sainsbury's and Waitrose based on five criteria including commitment and advocacy action. According to WWF's ranking method, Asda and Iceland miss the mark of transparency and full engagement in industry-wide initiatives.

Sophie Bauer, head of food transformation at WWF-UK, said: "Most UK shoppers will be shocked to hear that the British pork, chicken and salmon in their baskets could be driving deforestation in the Amazon, putting jaguars, sloths and toucans at risk.

"Food companies have the power and responsibility to break this link. Huge strides have been made in sourcing sustainable palm oil. Now the food industry must do the same for soy, sourcing responsibly, supporting farmers and suppliers and investing in forest protection to ensure that natural habitats in Brazil continue to support wildlife and suck up carbon."

WWF is calling for UK food companies to demonstrate leadership in the path ahead:

• Enhance visibility and traceability for deforestation and conversion free (DCF) sourcing. Support and adopt robust standards on soy imports and implement into contractual agreements with suppliers, creating a consistent and credible framework to effectively evidence DCF sourcing.

• Invest in the protection & restoration of land, supporting landowners with responsible stewardship. There is critical need for finance in high-risk regions, such as the Cerrado in Brazil, which currently produces around 60% of Brazilian soy, leading to rapid loss of vegetation. Investment will enable the protection of habitats and restore degraded land, provide support to producers for sustainable production, reduce GHG emissions, and relieve ongoing pressures within production landscapes.

• Advocate government to ensure that the legal frameworks are put in place to support a whole shift to DCF supply chains. Food businesses should use their voice to advocate for legislative and policy changes that would support and enable their businesses and suppliers to make the transition to deforestation and conversion-free soy.

• Take action in each of these areas while providing public transparency of plans, milestones, and progress in accordance with the recommendations of the globally recognised Accountability Framework initiative.

Soy production, primarily for animal feed, remains a major driver of deforestation and habitat loss in South America. The Amazon Soy Moratorium, which prevents soy being grown on former areas of rainforest that have been cut down since 2008 has recently been under threat in Brazil due to legal challenges. Ten UK retailers have called out international traders to continue protecting the Amazon from their soy sales.

Scientists say the Amazon, a key carbon sink, is nearing a tipping point whereby if much more of the rainforest is lost, it could collapse and degrade into grassland, causing catastrophic global impacts. The Cerrado biome is the main sourcing area for Brazilian soy with far less protections. The highest points are awarded to those supermarkets that are incentivising farmers to protect remaining native habitat from farm expansions in this region.

It is very difficult for supermarkets to trace where soy used on farms that they source meat and fish from originates, because beans are grown and mixed from across vast regions before being shipped to the UK, or in meat and dairy products imported from elsewhere.

In 2021, the Government passed the Environment Act, which included the power to put a duty of due diligence on companies importing products at risk of causing deforestation or land conversion to ensure that they were not sourced from illegally cleared land. However, despite promises, neither the Conservative nor Labour government has brought that power into effect.

This makes it impossible for UK consumers to know whether the British meat and fish they are buying has caused illegal deforestation in other parts of the world.

Earlier this year, British supermarkets in the Retail Soy Group issued an open letter calling on the government to enable them to urgently remove deforestation from UK supply chains. Recent polling by WWF and Global Witness found that 70% of the UK public backed implementing a law to require companies to remove illegal deforestation from their supply chains.

Read WWF's The Soy Story, including their UK Supermarket Soy Policy Scorecard and report by clicking here