The Co-operative has been presented with a Good Chicken Award at the Compassion’s Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards due to its higher welfare Elmwood standard for its own-brand chicken.
The Elmwood standard was first introduced in 2007, when The Co-op selected a group of British poultry farmers to embrace its own higher welfare and quality standards for its fresh plain whole chickens.
Elmwood has now been rolled out as a minimum standard to all The Co-op’s own-brand fresh, frozen, barbecue, breaded and ready-to-eat chicken. This represents a volume in excess of 50m broiler chickens a year.
The farmers are some of the best in the poultry business, and ensure that the Co-op’s Elmwood standards are adhered to at every level. The chickens are nurtured for longer in a more enriched, sunlit environment with more room to move about and perch.
Lynne Forbes, category development manager at The Co-op, said: “We’re very pleased to have received a Good Chicken Award, which is a new category in Compassion’s Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards. Animal welfare is something that is of upmost importance to The Co-operative, its members and its customers.”
Source: The Co-op
