Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
Devonshire White ™ is new 'Freedom Food' Chicken

Consumers are now being offered a new choice in fresh chicken through 70 Sainsbury's stores across the country with other retailers already expressing strong interest in this new product.

Lloyd Maunder, the family owned West Country meat and poultry producers, have adopted a new slower growing breed of chicken and are rearing it to RSPCA higher welfare standards, under the Freedom Food labelling scheme. This "Devonshire White TM" chicken is available in whole bird and portion packs, and carries the Freedom Food logo.

Being naturally slower growing and inquisitive by nature, Devonshire Whites ™ are able to take full advantage of the longer rearing cycle and enriched environment required under the RSPCA standards. These include more room for the birds within their open-plan houses, which allows them to flap and move around more freely, the provision of bales and perches to jump up onto and explore, and various 'attractions' to catch their attention. Amongst these are bright objects suspended at pecking height and even lightweight plastic footballs, which they peck at and push around. (No goals have been scored as yet but the occasional 'rolling maul' has been seen!)

By using a bird specially bred to be slower growing and using the RSPCA Standards which encourage a more active life, Lloyd Maunder believe that not only does this improve conditions for the birds, it produces a meat that has improved texture and flavour.

"This growing system does cost more to operate than standard chicken production," says Andrew Maunder, Commercial Director. "But we've held down the additional costs to an acceptable amount. We believe that customers will agree that it is worth paying a small premium, not only for improved welfare for the birds, but for better chicken on your plate.

"Our Devonshire White breed of chicken is particularly suited to the conditions laid down by the RSPCA and the improved standards of animal husbandry they want to achieve", says Andrew. "If customers will support us by buying the Devonshire White, we would like to see these applied across all our network of small family farms in the West Country."

Leigh Grant, Chief Executive of Freedom Food said "This is a major breakthrough in Freedom Food's mission to improve welfare for as many of the UK's farm animals as possible. We are delighted to have Lloyd Maunder on board and the first labelled products in store. Chicken are one of the most commonly farmed species in the UK and their welfare has often been a concern. Freedom Food can now offer consumers a greater welfare choice, with the opportunity to choose Freedom Food labelled Devonshire Whites in Sainsbury's and to support those producers implementing RSPCA welfare standards. We now look forward to more farmers joining the scheme and more labelled products being available."