Victory! Midwest Food Companies Join Nationwide Push for Animal-Free Research

For Immediate Release:
July 23, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Des Moines –

Two leading Midwest food companies—Howard-based Winona Foods and Kemin Industries, of Des Moines, Iowa—have heeded PETA’s call to stop funding cruel experiments on animals at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Food Research Institute.

The companies’ actions align with a growing national movement away from animal testing under the Trump administration, highlighted by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) groundbreaking decision to reduce experiments on animals and prioritize human-relevant research. NIH’s plan incorporated several elements of PETA scientists’ Research Modernization Now, a comprehensive strategy to replace tests on animals with cutting-edge, animal-free methods.

“Winona Foods and Kemin Industries read the writing on the wall and rightly decided they didn’t want the Food Research Institute squandering their money on cruel, outdated experiments on animals,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA calls on Wegmans Food Markets to demand that their institute funding is never used to torment monkeys, mice, or any other animals.”

The Food Research Institute paid experimenters to force-feed mice parasite-infested feces. Experimenters also force-fed pregnant monkeys listeria-contaminated whipping cream, cut them open, and dissected the dead babies killed by the bacteria. They’ve also injected mice with bacteria that cause botulism, waited for them to die from it, and dissected them.

After hearing from PETA, the institute changed its sponsorship policy and created the “Food Research Institute Programmatic (Non-animal) Support Fund” that lets sponsors divert their donations away from animal testing. PepsiCo, Inc., Campbell Soup Company, and 16 other sponsors have either directed their donations to the animal-free fund or cut off sponsorship entirely.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.