World's Largest Tea Maker Ends All Tea Tests on Animals Following PETA Meeting

International Campaign Launch Called Off After 'Wise Decision'

For Immediate Release:
January 31, 2011

Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 757-622-7382 

Englewood Cliffs, N.J. — Only days before PETA was set to launch an international campaign against the world's largest tea maker, Unilever, maker of Lipton and PG tips brand teas, has announced an immediate worldwide end to any tests on animals for tea and tea ingredients—for health claims or any other reason. The decision by Unilever, whose U.S. headquarters are in New Jersey, follows appeals to the company by more than 40,000 members of PETA and its international affiliates as well as a meeting with executives from PETA and its affiliates in the U.K., India, and Germany. During the meeting, Unilever was advised of imminent global "Lipton/PG tips CruelTEA" campaigns by PETA and its affiliates, and PETA's representatives gave the company's executives a glimpse at PETA's planned campaign website, which contained hard facts about painful experiments on pigs, rabbits, and rats as well as parodies of the tea brands' labels. As a result, Lipton has posted its new policy on its website stating, "Unilever is committing to no animal testing for our tea and tea-based beverages, with immediate effect."

"Lipton's decision means that the company will no longer harm live pigs or behead rabbits," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, who notes that among the canceled actions of PETA and its affiliates were a boisterous launch "tea party" at Unilever's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, a massive "tea dump" in Boston Harbor scheduled for February 2, and protests around the world. "We thank the company for listening to tea-drinkers' concerns for animals and stopping such cruel tests."

Lipton has funded experiments in which piglets were infected with E. coli and had their intestines cut apart while they were still alive, mice were killed by suffocation or neck-breaking, rabbits were decapitated, and rats were brain-damaged. These tests were not required by law, and U.S. and European regulators only allow food and beverage health claims based on human studies. Modern in vitro and safe human-based testing methods are more effective than experiments on animals because of the vast physiological differences between humans and other animals.

Lipton and PG tips join many other major beverage companies—including the world's number one green-tea maker, ITO EN, as well as Honest Tea, Twinings, Luzianne Tea, and Stash Tea—that have ended and pledged not to conduct tests on animals. The only exception to the new policy would be the rare occasions in which a foreign government, such as China, or a federal agency that doesn't recognize the non-animal methods in use in the EU and US were to require animal tests.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.