UK shoppers turn to higher welfare chicken, report

A recent survey by UK Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) reveals 73 per cent of consumers now buy higher welfare chicken since learning about the conditions in which standard chickens are farmed.

The British Poultry Council (BPC) represents companies involved in breeding and processing poultry.

It said in a statement that free range chicken sales are still only 6 per cent of total UK chicken sales but are a growing part of shoppers' buying preferences.

A study earlier this year by researchers at Bristol University warned: " Since the sustainability of intensive broiler production depends on continued consumer acceptance of the farm practices involved, the broiler industry will need to work with the scientific community to…ensure that optimal husbandry and management practices are fully implemented ."

The study had concluded that the huge increase in growth rates of broiler chickens (reared for their meat) means that more than a quarter of intensively-reared birds have difficulty walking.

RSPCA Other RSPCA survey results suggest that nearly three out of four people feel supermarkets should only sell higher welfare chicken such as Freedom Food, free-range or organic.

Also, 27 per cent of people polled said that they are willing to pay an extra two pounds for higher welfare chicken and almost 80 per cent said animal welfare is an important consideration when buying chicken.

The RSPCA claims that this change in customer attitudes has largely taken place since the start of 2008, when TV chefs told viewers to buy higher welfare birds.

At the same time, the RSPCA began asking people to sign a petition calling on supermarkets to sell only higher welfare chicken by 2010 and for shoppers to buy only poultry labelled Freedom Food, free range or organic.

The RSPCA claims that so far 53,000 people have signed the petition.

The RSPCA remains concerned about a lack of clear labelling, which means consumers are still unsure what is high welfare chicken.

It has therefore introduced a Good Chicken Guide which shows consumers where they can buy different categories of higher welfare poultry, and which products are standard indoor reared chicken.

BPC response The BPC disputes the rapid change in consumer attitudes saying that free range chicken sales under Red Tractor Standards have been increasing consistently since last year.

January 2008 sales for free-range showed a 35 per cent increase on January 2007, but only an 11 per cent increase on November 2007.

Red Tractor Standards for poultry assure that birds have to be well cared for, with animal welfare a priority.

Other standards are also demanded such as assurances with regard to food safety.

The BPC says that the standards demanded by Red Tractor are more comprehensive than those demanded by the RSPCA's Freedom Food.

Taste issue A recent survey by Choice, an Australian consumer organisation, showed that with regard to taste there was little difference between higher welfare and intensively reared chickens: " there was no significant difference between the scores for free range or organic chickens and factory farmed birds ."

Choice said that this was in line with a survey conducted in the US.

Choice concluded that the reason for this was that now all commercial meat birds are from the same fast-maturing genetic stock: " The free range, organic and broiler birds from big producers are so alike any differentiation and competition is dead, to the detriment of consumers and, ultimately, the industry "