Nestlé Drops Ice Cream Business

Investigation Reveals Cruelty in Dairy Supply Chain

UPDATE: Just days after ditching its cruel ice cream business, Nestlé rolled out a vegan option for its Nesquik brand. Learn more on our petition.

Since the release of our heartbreaking investigation exposing cruelty behind Nestlé’s massive Maryland ice cream factory, tens of thousands of you have urged the food giant to churn out dairy-free options through our Change.org petition. In response, Nestlé announced a vegan bacon cheeseburger, and now, the beleaguered company is ditching its dirty US ice cream business for good. 

As Nestlé scrambles to keep up with demand for vegan products, it recently unveiled plans for vegan cheddar, marking the brand’s first step in addressing the reduced demand for cow’s milk since the release of our investigation. The company will sell a vegan bacon, cheese, and burger trio to restaurant and foodservice customers starting next year to provide an entirely vegan meal–a landmark step at a time when many fast food chains still pair plant-based burgers with animal-derived cheese or mayo.

And the company made further progress by recently announcing a partnership with ingredient company Corbion to investigate plant-based products made from microalgae–including dairy alternatives.

Yet despite this forward movement, Nestlé continued to refuse addressing the cruelty we revealed behind its ice cream, including hot irons being burned into calves’ flesh to permanently destroy their horns and growth tissue in a process known as “dehorning” or “disbudding.”

So, with your support, the campaign intensified. We delivered your signatures straight to the company’s doorstep alongside our giant inflatable cow and encircled its Arlington, VA, headquarters with a nightmarish ice cream truck depicting the egregious abuse we documented. Thousands of people received our campaign postcards at Nestlé-sponsored events nationwide, and dozens tried our free samples of delicious vegan ice cream. Even celebrity mom Edie Falco and athlete Kara Lang Romero spoke out for mother cows this past Mother’s Day.

Embroiled in controversy over its cruelty to cows and amidst freezing demand for dairy as consumers seek compassionate alternatives, Nestlé’s apparently seeking an exit plan. This week, it announced that it is offloading its US ice cream business to Froneri for $4 billion after months of Animal Outlook campaigning.

Nestlé may be removing a huge chunk of cruelty from its supply chain, which includes more than one million cows worldwide, but our work is far from done. Cows in the dairy industry continue to suffer painful mutilations and have their babies torn from them just after birth, and are finally sent to slaughter after a grueling life being used as nothing more than milk machines.

Keep powering our progress for cows TODAY: Make a quick, tax-deductible donation to Animal Outlook’s life-saving work. And hurry: Donate by December 31, and your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar, meaning it’s stretched twice as far for animals.

Thank you for helping to make a kinder world for all animals.