chicken

[glenis]

is all the chicken we eat in this country (uk) produced here ? do we import any at all? i have a friend who is paranoid about bird flu and i am trying to convince her that what you see on sainsburys shelves is safe to eat

[mrrobbo15]

...yes we do import fresh chicken from abroad...from belguim, i know for a fact. its good stuff though, and you really wouldnt tell the difference.

as for bird flu...you cant catch it from a chicken atfer its been cooked...

[nickmo]

Firstly, cooking kills the virus and there is no need at all not to eat chicken. See DEFRA web site for updates about this.

Poultry bought in the UK does not necessarily have to be reared in the UK. Brazil and Thailand are the largest producers and send much of their output to Holland where it can then be called EU produce if it is packed according to EU regulations.

It can legally be packaged in the UK and sold as British though, and consumers have no way to check the country of origin as the packing plant number and country is the one on the little oval label.

Most chicken products, like nuggets etc come form overseas produced meat. 'Mechanicaly reclaimed' means a carcass forced through a 'seive' to turn it into a useable product, chicken breasts can have beef or pork dna added so the flesh hold more water when frozen - i.e can be sold for more money. Big scandal a couple of years ago about that from Dutch plants, as they boasted they could make the other dna invisible to testing.

The best and arguably safest source will be from a local butcher/poulterer, farm shop or farmers' market. Ask about the provenance of the bird - broilers are ready at about 44 days old, and the industry is aiming at 35 days to boost incomes. Any producer with an interest in the rearing of birds though will tell you that cramped conditions (chickens can live their 45 days in a space the size of an A4 piece of paper) and over prescribed anti-biotics - used as the birds have no chance to devlop immunity - will ruin the quality of the meat.

Italy has seen a 70% drop in use of chicken and France 35%, leading to the UK getting a load of cheap factory produced poultry swamping the wholesale markets, so stand up for the British producers and check where it has come from by asking.

[nickmo]

And just as a comment, Gordon Ramsay has just switched to poultry for all his restaurants from Essex, (Fredericks Farm, producing the 'label Anglais' birds) and cancelled the French suppliers he was previously using to make steps to supporting the UK producers, and Nick Nairn is in a similar position aiming to encourage the local shopping process.

Phil Vickary has just endorsed the Bucks, Berks and Oxon booklet on local shopping with the same message, and other celeb chefs and cooks are also currently plugging the buy British campaign as there really is no need for foreign produced poultry, (with the exception perhaps for duck that the UK doesn't seem to produce enough of to satisfy demand, both for fresh meat and for using for smoking products).

There are some surprisong workings to do with diseases. Latest query is feeding poultry with by products form cow carcasses, then feeding poultry waste litter (faeces that means) to cows. There is the concern this may pass BSE to cows through infected poultry waste. Oh really, well thats a good idea to stop doing then...

If you want the industry news and opinions aboout bird flu, see: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/LatestNews/ for comments worldwide.

Remeber the UK consumer was not aware of 30 million birds in Holland and the Low Countries being culled 2 years ago because of bird flu - it didn't reach us before and we can only hope it won't again.

[chinois]

I've been informed that the majority of chicken consumed in england is foreign. Asian chicken can be up to 4 times cheaper so a lot comes from there. My girlfriend works for the dept that buys food for our county council (for the schools, hospitals, care homes, canteens etc) and says that none of the chicken they buy is english. Thai chicken seems to be the cheapest currently and that's what they buy.

[mrrobbo15]

..thai cooked chicken is cheap...since bird flu ...fresh or more likely fozen is more expensive (tho still cheaper than british )

[Jules001]

M & S sell chickens with the name of the poultry farm, when I looked they all seemed to be from Norfolk (not Bernard Matthews)

[glenis]

thanks for all your replies now you are making me paranoid !! i always thought that all the chicken we consumed in this country was home produced ,some of the points raised here are quite worrying

[nickmo]

Glenis - if you want a bit of background on food in the UK, read Felicity Lawrences book 'Not on the Plate' and Joanna Blythman 'Shopped'.

Couple of paperbacks that will make you think about food like never before.