The programme’s publicity states: “In a dramatic television event, Jamie Oliver hosts a gala dinner where he shows his guests the hideous realities of industrial chicken production in this country through a series of shocking demonstrations.
“Jamie is asking consumers to change what they buy, farmers to change how they farm, and retailers to change what they sell.”
Oliver is also the face of Sainsbury’s TV advertising, and is reported to have held meetings with the supermarket giant to discuss the issue.
A Channel 4 spokesman said: “Jamie doesn’t have any intention of antagonising anybody. His intention is to work with people.
“He feels very strongly this is a consumer-led thing. It’s an education issue with consumers and he wants to work with the industry to address it.
“He’s not trying to name and shame and scandalise people, but consumers need to understand the realities.”
The publicity for Hugh’s Chicken Run states that the programme “presents Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall with his biggest challenge yet, as he goes behind the chicken shed doors to change the way Britain consumes chicken.”
In the programme, the food guru sets up his own intensive farm to see how chickens are treated.
The publicity adds: “From supermarkets to takeaways, Hugh wants everyone to go free-range. Starting with the residents of his local town Axminster, and Tesco supermarket, Hugh goes on to challenge all the major supermarkets to change their ways.”
Other programmes in the Channel 4 food series include Eat Yourself to Death, which will look at the health costs of unhealthy, processed food.
