Jamie Oliver has risked the wrath of Britain’s farmers by saying he would not feed his children chicken which had been produced to the ‘Red Tractor’ standard.
The celebrity chef made the statement during his weekly cookery programme on Channel 4.
The label is used by 78,000 farmers in the UK and the farming industry says it means chicken has met ‘robust and responsible’ production standards and is traceable back to its source.
But on a recent episode of Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, the celebrity chef and his friend Jimmy Doherty, a farmer and TV presenter, raised questions over the ‘bottom standard’.
Jamie Oliver has attacked Red Tractor British chickens and says he wouldn’t cook the birds at home
While footage played of chickens in a large shed, Doherty said: ‘Most of these birds never go outside and have little space to move about. Although some barns have natural light, perches and pecking objects, this isn’t a requirement.’ Oliver, who owns dozens of restaurants, added: ‘Chickens are bred to grow fast with a high ratio of meat to bone, but this makes them heavy so they can struggle to walk… I think people would be shocked by the reality of what we are buying.’
Doherty then asked him: ‘You wouldn’t eat Red Tractor chicken?’ and Oliver responded: ‘I personally wouldn’t feed it to my kids.’
Doherty then said: ‘The Red Tractor label does guarantee a consistent basic standard for welfare and hygiene so we know our food comes from a trustworthy and safe source.
‘But is that minimum standard high enough? If you look at Red Tractor, they deal with welfare but they deal with everything from pesticide use to conservation to health and safety to traceability so having a bottom standard that covers all of British farming for me is really important.’
The label is used by 78,000 farmers in the UK and the farming industry says it means chicken has met ‘robust and responsible’ production standards and is traceable back to its source
The pair then said that they would rather British chicken was produced to a ‘higher welfare’ standard ‘with labels such as RSPCA-assured’.
RSPCA welfare standards for chicken means the birds must be given ‘sufficient space’ and require the use of slower growing birds, to help prevent problems like lameness.
Minette Batters, who last week became the first every woman to run the National Farmers’ Union, argued that the Red Tractor standard ‘means that we have the highest standards of food safety of environmental protection. The Red Tractor is a mark of food safety.’
She pointed out that the scheme helped families on lower incomes buy food confident that it had been created to a high standard.
She told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘There are a lot of people on tight budgets and they must not be disadvantaged in all of this. It is about making sure we can provide quality affordable, safe, traceable food to everybody regardless of budgets, regardless of background.’
Oliver’s opinion came after Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, told the NFU conference last week that food standards would not fall after Britain leaves the European Union.
There are fears that after Brexit the UK will sign a trade deal with America to allow cheaper, chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in British supermarkets.
Assured Food Standards, which licences the Red Tractor mark, did not respond to a request to comment yesterday.