Restaurateurs have questioned the merits of Labour‘s plan to ban the boiling of live lobsters amid concerns it will squeeze already time–pressured chefs.
On Monday Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds unveiled the Government’s new animal welfare strategy for England. It includes a vow to outlaw placing live, conscious decapods into boiling water as a means of killing them.
Chefs instead face having to shell out for a £3,500 lethal electrocution device, placing them in a freezer long enough to stun them, or jamming a knife into the crustacean’s head and through its body to sever their nerves.
But chefs have questioned whether the ban can even be enforced – and the Government is yet to say whether it will be regulated at all.
Boiling lobsters is already illegal in several countries. In Switzerland, which banned the practice seven years ago, offenders face fines or up to three years in prison.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is yet to say whether those who continue to boil lobsters and crabs will face similar punitive measures.
At present, it has committed solely to taking boiling out of the ‘acceptable killing methods’ that will be included in future guidance.
Richard Wilkins, who runs 104 Restaurant in London’s plush Notting Hill, is among those questioning the need for the new guidance.
Richard Wilkins, owner of 104 Restaurant in London’s Notting Hill, has questioned the need for a ban on boiling lobsters
Restaurateur James Chiavarini, pictured outside his Il Portico eatery in Kensington, says chefs are capable of deciding best practice without needing the Government to intervene
Animal campaigners have called for restaurants to adopt a CrustaStun device that can humanely stun, then kill, a lobster within seconds – but it costs £3,500
‘How do you police something like that? Is Keir Starmer coming in in his chef’s whites to keep an eye on things?’ Mr Wilkins said.
‘The wider issue is whether we should we be legislating on everything. It’s probably the most inane part of the strategy – if we’re just banning it (without enforcement) that’s kind of pointless, isn’t it?’
Mr Wilkins, who is trained in classical French cooking, has worked among top cooks in some of France’s most illustrious establishments where lobsters are often boiled.
He also trained at the Michelin–starred French cuisine Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire, and under Gordon Ramsay at Pétrus; the Scotsman is said to use the knife method.
His cosy 104 Restaurant has a compact kitchen and just six tables; however, he sympathises with larger restaurants boiling lobsters in the name of time.
‘At The Waterside Inn, which is a lot larger a restaurant than mine, you go through a lot in service, but they have a lot of staff as well,’ he added.
‘If you’re a big restaurant doing lobsters, and you’re required to do something extra, it could create more of a staff cost, possibly.’
Restaurateur James Chiavarini, who owns the Il Portico and La Palombe eateries in Kensington, west London, has also questioned alternatives to boiling.
Animal welfare groups have backed the use of the Crustastun device, which places the lobster in an electrified tank of water to deliver a lethal dose of electricity – but it costs £3,500.
But Mr Chiavarini believes moves to remove people’s choices are ultimately putting paid to traditional cooking methods, adding that many small restaurants can’t afford a piece of expensive equipment with a single purpose.
He told the Mail: ‘Like any restaurant which is struggling to ends meet is going to spend £3,500 electrocuting lobsters.
‘How are they going to police it? There are a lot of policies that are progressive, brought in under the guise of kindness and empathy, that are taking us away from our own sense of what we are and towards a mechanised society.
‘We’re all in a hunter–gatherer mindset – we’re know things have to die for us to eat. That’s the natural world. If you take the view that we’re all part of that why are we singling out lobsters?
‘Years ago people didn’t think twice, when everyone had a local abattoir in their village. We’re so far removed now from the idea of having to kill something for food.’
Environment secretary Emma Reynolds (pictured) unveiled the Government’s new animal welfare strategy on Monday
Campaigners say boiling lobsters is cruel, with scientific evidence said to back the assertion that crustaceans can feel pain
If the Government was serious about cracking down on animal welfare, he suggested, it would look at the conditions of chickens raised to be used in high street chains and cheap fast food outlets.
And he has questioned whether the law needs to be brought in at all, as many cooks have adopted more humane practices without a need for government intervention.
‘To tell you the truth, nobody has boiled lobsters for years,’ Mr Chiavarini added. ‘We’re all following best practice – you can freeze them, you can use a knife.
‘People know what’s responsible and what isn’t. It doesn’t have to be brought in as legislation. The Government just brought it in to make them look like the good guys – it’s posturing.
‘They have this assumption of the world that things are how they were about 25, 30 years’ ago but things have changed. I think that says it all.’
Mr Wilkins of 104 Restaurant says he was trained to kill lobsters with a knife through the head which, he says, kills them instantly. Preparation follows almost immediately – as enzymes begin breaking down the flesh within minutes.
‘It’s the nicer way to dispatch them,’ Mr Wilkins says of the knife method. ‘That’s what I was taught, and then you can cook them any way you like.’
But wholesalers and suppliers are also concerned that the potential additional cost, and the red tape associated with compliance, could affect British trade.
David Jarrad, chief executive of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain, told the Telegraph: ‘Our concern in the UK is that if restaurants and hotels do not wish to buy stunning equipment, which costs around £3,500, they will just import frozen seafood from abroad.’
A YouGov poll commissioned by campaign group Crustacean Compassion in February found that 65 per cent of British adults opposed the live boiling of crabs and lobsters, an increase from 2021, when a similar poll put the figure at 51 per cent.
Animal rights campaigners had previously called for the boiling of crustaceans to be outlawed on the modern understanding that the animals feel pain when boiled.
A live lobster with its claws bound is inspected at Bridlington Harbour. Suppliers and wholesalers are worried the tougher standards will see cooks favour cheap frozen lobster
The animal welfare strategy promises better conditions for animals – prompting concerns that producers will be undercut by foreign farmers (pictured: shellfish being sorted in Bridlington)
Dr Ben Sturgeon, CEO of Crustacean Compassion CEO, said of Defra’s move: ‘When live, conscious animals are placed into boiling water, they endure several minutes of excruciating pain. This is torture and completely avoidable.
‘Humane alternatives, like electrical stunning, are readily available and ensure these animals are killed swiftly and without unnecessary suffering.’
While scientific opinion has wavered over the years, a 2021 London School of Economics report found strong evidence to suggest lobsters and other crustaceans are sentient and capable of suffering distress or harm.
UK law requires animals to be stunned before slaughter to minimise pain and suffering at the time of death.
However, there are exemptions for slaughters carried out on religious grounds, such as when animals are killed using specific methods to meet kosher or halal standards.
Around 88 per cent of all animals killed to halal standards are stunned before death, according to a 2024 survey by the Food Standards Authority.
Stunning is considered halal so long as it is reversible, though the animal must be alive at the time its throat is cut.
Shechita – the Jewish form of animal slaughter, performed with a single cut using a surgically sharp instrument – forbids the use of mechanical stunning altogether.
Mr Wilkins says he occasionally receives requests to serve halal meat, and even to have a rabbi present in his kitchen to ensure food is prepared to kosher standards.
On animals slaughtered without stunning, he added: ‘If someone really wanted me to do it, I could buy something in, but I don’t necessarily agree with the way it’s prepared. But we are talking about people’s choices.
‘I can make a purse out of a sow’s ear, but I like the highest quality products too.’
Elsewhere, Defra’s animal welfare strategy also includes commitments to banning puppy farms, introducing new livestock worrying laws and ending trail hunting, which critics claim is used as a cover to circumvent the existing ban on fox hunting.
Farmers are worried about proposals to phase out the use of cages for hens and farrowing crates for pigs without similar welfare standards being adopted for imported meat. No 10 has not ruled out hitting foreign imports with tariffs.
A Defra spokesperson told the Mail today: ‘As outlined in the Animal Welfare Strategy, we are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and will work closely with the fishing sector to improve the welfare of all decapod crustaceans.’