Chicken jargon buster

The Great British Food Fight Chicken label jargon buster

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Date Published:
07/01/2008

Chicken's back on the agenda for the British public. If you're still confused about what you're buying then here's what you need to know.

Freedom Foods

Back in 1994 the RSPCA launched their own set of welfare standards under the logo of Freedom Foods. This doesn't mean the bird is necessarily free range and in fact one of their aims is to raise the welfare of birds intensively raised. Their standards include increased spacing, improved access to natural light, substitutes for natural perches and clean material for dust bathing, all important in allowing the birds to express their natural behaviour.

One recent key standard is the introduction of slower growing breeds of bird. Many standard chickens are raised from one of three breeds and all are pushed to reach their slaughter weight by 40 days. This drive to gain weight puts strain on the bird's heart and legs resulting in higher death rates.

Only a small percentage of the birds we eat carry this logo, however it is growing – up by 10 million from about 45 million birds last year. However some retailers like M&S and Waitrose don't sell standard birds at all and follow the RSPCA's recommendation for stocking density.

In fact as a result of Jamie's programme, Sainsbury's have committed themselves to end the sale of fresh own label standard intensive chicken and to only selling own label fresh chicken that is free range or of higher welfare indoor standards. Likewise Tesco's Willow Farm and the Co-op's Elmwood all come under the bracket of higher indoor welfare.

Find out about Hugh's latest chicken labelling campaign

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  1. Does the Red Tractor logo mean that all chicken products have been given a reasonable quality of life. On BBC Breakfast TV (18/9/09) Hugh mentioned chicken welfare but did not mention the Red Tractor which caused us to doubt the standards, Could this be qualified as we would hate to be eating anything not reared in good conditions. Thank You.
    Posted by Graham Hooper on 18/09/2009 10:11:09
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  2. I have been so confused over what different terminology means when it comes to chickens and they way they are reared. It is disppointing to read that even Free Range may not be so if they kept in cramped conditions! I would like to see a chart with the symbols and definitions that I could carry with me for easy reference. Thanks
    Posted by Kate A on 10/05/2009 21:07:13
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  3. i'm confused what is better, free range chicken or freedom food chicken/
    Posted by Alex on 01/03/2009 12:23:21
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  4. Can you tell us about asda welfare chickens ? are they treated better than the chickens shown on the show. we are trying to buy better and we want to know if they are better.
    Posted by Andrew Simpson on 08/02/2009 15:27:31
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