Animal rights groups have condemned eight companies, owning or franchising 18 brands, for dropping the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) and signing up to the Sustainable Chicken Forum (SCF).
The cross-industry initiative, signed up to by the likes of Burger King, Nando’s, The Big Table, The Restaurant Group and KFC, was designed to drive improvements in chicken welfare while balancing sustainability, net zero ambitions and long-term supply resilience, it said.
However, it was quickly dismissed as “welfare-washing” by the Humane League’s campaigns manager Claire Williams, who said the switch by the companies was made due to threatened profit margins.
She continued: “The result will be the continued use and abuse of hundreds of millions of birds who grow so big, so fast that often their legs are racked with lameness, their organs collapse in pain, and their bodies are burned black with excrement.”
Compassion in World Farming told The Grocer it was too early to comment on the SCF, although it urged the forum to “take a genuinely holistic approach to broiler welfare, recognising the many benefits of higher‑welfare production”.
Announcing the SCF, UKHospitality said businesses no longer believed the BCC was “the right framework to drive the next phase of progress on welfare due to the requirement to source only slower-growing breeds”.
At the launch, the organisation pointed to ADAS data that showed a shift to slower-growing breeds, which require more space to farm, could reduce poultry production in Europe by as much as 44%. ADAS also said slower-growing breeds generate more than a quarter more greenhouse gas emissions and require 34.5% more water than the industry standard to produce broiler chickens.
An industry source told The Grocer that viewing welfare in isolation ignored the environmental impact and need for consistent supply that must be managed.
However CIWF countered that “claims that adopting higher-welfare breeds compromises food security or environmental outcomes are unfounded, as there are a broader range of socio-economic and environmental benefits to breed change that should be considered”.
Read more: Hospitality industry launches Sustainable Chicken Forum
The launch of the SCF was welcomed by British Poultry Council CEO Richard Griffiths as “not only does it recognise that sustainability must be grounded in practical delivery, but it also reflects a growing consensus that frameworks must be workable if they are to endure”.
“British poultry meat businesses are balancing welfare, environmental stewardship, and food security at a time of huge uncertainty, rising production costs, and planning barriers,” Griffiths continued. “If we want to move faster and go further, we need to support investment; not layer on costs and expectations that make progress impossible.”
He added: “Industry has proven time and again that when solutions are developed in partnership with those who have to deliver them, progress follows.”
“The welfare of these chickens, the environmental impact of chicken farming and the security of chicken supply for the long term are all crucial for us,” Nando’s said in a statement on its website. “These are all interlinked and must be addressed together in order for us to make long-term continuous improvement on chicken welfare standards.”
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