Sales of free-range birds soar after TV chefs slate factory farming
SALES of free-range chickens have soared after two TV chefs highlighted the shocking factory methods used to farm many birds.
The horrific images in programmes featuring Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have persuaded many customers to change their habits when it comes to shopping for poultry.
Last night, animal welfare groups welcomed the news but warned there was still much to be done to improve the conditions in which most chickens are raised in the UK.
Dr Marc Cooper, from the RSPCA, described the increased sales as "extremely encouraging" and said it showed the public had taken notice.
Supermarket chain Sainsburys reported sales of free-range and organic chicken – as well as those birds whose treatment meets the RSPCA's Freedom Food scheme – had increased by 50%. Waitrose saw sales of organic chicken increase by 31% with other free-range meat sales rise by 24%.
Many Scottish consumers say they have been struggling to find any free-range or organic chicken.
One contributor from Fife to an online debate about the subject wrote last week: "One supermarket in Glenrothes has had none at all since these programmes went out."
Another said: "In Lanark, at the local supermarket, the free-range chickens were nearly sold out and other people at my work also commented on the same thing happening at their local stores.
"From now on, it's only free range in our house because standard chicken farming should not be supported by our money."
Last night, a spokesman for Sainsburys said its customers in Scotland had been buying free-range or organic chickens in vast numbers.
The programmes fronted by Oliver and Fearnley-Whittingstall included images of birds kept in spaces smaller than an A4 piece of paper and spending virtually 24 hours a day in near-darkness.
