Eight businesses, owning or franchising 18 leading hospitality brands, are to launch the Sustainable Chicken Forum (SCF), The Grocer can reveal.
The new cross-industry initiative is designed to drive further improvements in chicken welfare while balancing sustainability, net zero ambitions and long-term supply resilience.
The businesses involved include BKUK (the master franchisee for Burger King in the UK), Lemon Pepper Holdings (the UK franchisee of Wingstop), Loungers UK, Nando’s UK & Ireland, PLK Chicken UK (the master franchisee for Popeyes in the UK), The Big Table Group, The Restaurant Group (the parent company of Wagamama), and Yum! Brands (the owner of KFC UK & Ireland, Pizza Hut UK and Taco Bell UK).
The work at SCF will focus on areas including advancing chicken welfare across each business’ supply chain, led by science-based welfare outcomes, and using reporting mechanisms to demonstrate progress across the hospitality sector.
It will also champion continuous improvements in chicken welfare, explore opportunities for further research into the challenges facing the poultry sector in balancing welfare improvements with environmental impact and consistent supply, and engage in policy development that supports the British supply to grow as part of the European and global poultry supply chain.
In the UK, SCF will also advocate for a joined-up approach to poultry policy that overcomes “restrictive planning rules” and aligns animal welfare and farming priorities.
It comes as the eight companies involved have announced they are withdrawing from the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a science-based, six-point chicken welfare policy that looks to address issues related to breeding for fast growth and high yield.
They said “businesses no longer believe the BCC is the right framework to drive the next phase of progress on animal welfare due to the requirement to source only slower-growing breeds”. They believe a focus on slower-growing breeds alone ”ignores the knock-on impacts of these breeds for the poultry supply chain”.
It comes as ADAS data shows that across Europe, a shift to slower-growing breeds that require more space to farm could reduce poultry production by as much as 44%.
Avian flu outbreaks across the world, particularly in the UK and Europe, have led to millions of birds being culled. At the same time, changes to production systems – including reduced stocking densities and some moves to slower-growing breeds – had reduced the number of chickens being farmed, the group said.
At the same time, “consumer demand for chicken continues to soar”, said UKHospitality CEO Allen Simpson. “This demand comes at a time of acute chicken supply pressures and operators rightly have to ensure consistent and secure supply chains, while continuing to improve welfare standards and cut their environmental impact.
“I’m pleased that businesses are committed to enhancing their ongoing work across welfare and the environment, and the Sustainable Chicken Forum will play a vital role to make even more progress, as well as overcoming this shared supply challenge.”
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