The British Poultry Council is concerned that the Channel 4 programmes fronted by celebrity chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver are misrepresenting the high standards in modern British chicken farming and will seriously mislead many viewers. We understand the latter programme will portray two chicken houses from a single small company as being typical of all chicken farms. This is simply not the case.   

Sadly the robust and comprehensive standards in the independently audited Assured Chicken Production (ACP) code and the protection they provide for bird health and welfare are largely ignored. The programme maker’s preoccupation with RSPCA Freedom Foods appears to have blinded them to the developments of similar farming systems under which many chickens are already being produced and sold by supermarkets.

BPC does not consider Hugh’s Chicken Run series shows chicken rearing which is in any way representaive of chicken farming in Britian. Poultry houses are scientifically designed and equipped to ensure the ventilation and other needs of the chickens are properly provided for. It is highly significant that the temporary premises used to rear chickens in this experiment failed to obtain Assured Chicken Production certification, and the apparently poor welfare outcome is not unexpected.    

The UK and the EU lead the world in farm animal welfare. British poultry farming is a highly regulated sector both in law and in the assurance standards which go beyond legal requirements. Every ACP farm is independently audited each year. The commitment of British farmers and processors to these standards has resulted in the safest chicken in Europe confirmed by European Food Safety Authority surveys.   Consumers can be confident that chicken farmed and processed in Britain is to a high standard.

-ENDS-

 Notes to Editors:

1. The British Poultry Council is the leading representative organization for companies and individuals engaged in breeding, hatching, rearing and processing chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese to produce poultry meat.

2. The joint statement by the BPC and the NFU can be found here

BPC 04 January 2008