Supermarkets sell millions of chickens with visible burns caused by living in their own waste, according to a BBC investigation. Known as hock burn, the visible damage is caused by contact with ammonia, which can lead to ulcers on the legs of the birds, signalling poor animal welfare. The BBC contacted the UK’s 10 largest retail chains, with the Co-op and Aldi having the highest rates of the condition, but five refused to release their data. The British Retail Consortium said supermarkets took the issue “very seriously”.
According to the UK’s biggest food and farm assurance scheme, Red Tractor, hock burn should be no more than 15% of a flock. It is caused by high stocking density and prolonged contact with dirty, moist bedding. The severity of hock burn in a poultry flock is an industry-accepted wider indicator of welfare standards on farms.
Hock burn is safe to consume. However, Open Cages, an animal welfare campaign group, recently asked volunteers to check over 500 whole chickens on shelves across 22 Lidl stores in nine UK towns and cities between September and November 2021; they found that 74% of the chickens had hock burn. Lidl is now being encouraged to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment, a set of higher welfare standards for the industry backed by the RSPCA.
Although some supermarkets, such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, have worked to tackle the issue, data collected by the BBC reveals that chickens with hock burn are being sold at all of the retailers investigated, albeit in varying quantities. The BBC requested data on animal welfare from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Co-op, Lidl, Waitrose, Iceland and Ocado. Five companies failed to provide figures.
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