The number of supermarket special offers involving meat without any form of animal welfare labelling rose 40% last year, despite government commitments to reduce the sale of budget meat, according to animal welfare lobby group Wakker Dier.

The organisation monitored the contents of special offer brochures published by Albert Heijn, Aldi, Jumbo, Dirk, Lidl, Plus and Emte.

It found the number of offers involving meat with a ‘better life’ or other label had doubled to 712. Nevertheless, four in five offers – or 3,566 – were for meat with no labels. Organic meat accounted for just 2.6% of the total.

Last December, junior economic affairs minister Martijn van Dam said the government will not take legal steps to ban the sale of extremely cheap meat.