Is Ben & Jerry's ethical and cruelty-free?
Mixed — Ben & Jerry's clears 1 of 4 ethics signals and fails 1, so it depends which issue matters most to you.
Ben & Jerry's remains a B Corp with a highly public social-mission stance, protected on paper by its independent board post-2000 Unilever acquisition — a structure now being tested in court over political-speech disputes.
The evidence, signal by signal
Cruelty-freeunverified
Does not test on animals.
Vegan optionsunverified
Growing non-dairy line based on almonds and sunflower butter; fully vegan tubs since 2016.
Sells in mainland Chinaverified
The brand does not sell through channels that require mainland China post-market testing.
Third-party certifiedflagged
No independent certifications recorded on the products we track.
Public pledges: Fair Trade certified ingredients (cocoa, sugar, vanilla, bananas, coffee); scope 3 emissions target set for 2030.
Scored with our public methodology. Profile last updated 2026-08-05.
More on Ben & Jerry's
Is Ben & Jerry's ethical? FAQs
Is Ben & Jerry's cruelty-free?+
Does not test on animals.
Does Ben & Jerry's have vegan products?+
Growing non-dairy line based on almonds and sunflower butter; fully vegan tubs since 2016.
Does Ben & Jerry's sell in mainland China?+
The brand does not sell through channels that require mainland China post-market testing.
What is Ben & Jerry's's ethics score?+
Ben & Jerry's averages —/100 across 0 products we score on certifications, sourcing, labour, packaging and transparency.
What are the best alternatives to Ben & Jerry's?+
See our full list of ethical alternatives to Ben & Jerry's for better-scoring options in the same categories.