Free Range Chicken

The recent series on TV by Jamie and Hugh F-W has had a remarkable response in the supermarkets. Animal welfare is back on the agenda now and not just because of a respect for living creatures, but also because these higher welfare animal production methods actually result in a product that tastes better and does us more good (grass fed cattle are higher in Omega 3 than barn reared and fed). What is interesting is that although the majority of the nation is waking up to buying more responsibly in their everyday shopping this does not cross over into the meal replacement market. There are many gastropubs that have been championing free range etc. for years (us amongst them), but look at the growth in popularity of say Dominoes, Pizza Express, Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Look at the ingredient list for Dominoes and see that their broiler chicken comes from Thailand. In fact, in the majority of household named take away's and food delivery companies (e.g. Bombay Bicycle Club - a very well respected Indian food delivery business - owned by the same people as Gourmet Burger Kitchen) don't use free range chicken in their restaurants. How many people ask them the question? Not many I am told.

We don't get asked a lot either. I had thought for a while this was because we were good at advertising the fact that we only source free range meat but perhaps it is because people just have not made the leap to suggest they have choice when eating a meal replacement - whether in a restuarant or take away/food delivery that the meat is free range. To make the most of supporting Hugh we should all ensure that when we order food, wherever it is, we are sure of the provenance of that food. Hugh's Chicken Out Campaign has demonstrated very clearly that left to the maufacturers, caterers and supermarkets that the quality of our food, from how it is sourced to how it is cooked can become so out of kilter with how many of us used to beleive things were. We had trusted these people to act responsibly and they chose not to, in the pursuit of profit. It seems that the only way to change this is from consumer pressure - so come on, next time you eat out or eat a ready meal or take away, make sure that you know the provenance of the product.