11/09/05

PACKED IN BRITAIN is totally different to produced in Britain, in reality "packed in", will almost certainly  have been brought in from abroad and it's origin could be as far away as Thailand. 

When the birds are fully grown, they are usually hand caught, and placed into modular crates to be transported to the processing factory.

The number of birds in a transportation crate varies according to the weight and size of the birds. Different carrying conditions apply to summer and winter. In hot periods the lorries must be kept moving or when standing at the factory have large fans blowing over them to keep the birds cool. These strict rules are laid down in the Meat Hygiene Standards which is governed by the UK government institution Ministry of Agriculture Food and Fisheries (MAFF).

The birds are caught in a dim light so the catchers do not scare them. It is important that the birds are handled carefully, rough handling will cause the bird stress and processors pay a down grade bonus to the catchers to ensure that the birds welfare is put first.

Each one of the lorries in the picture will carry 5000/5750 birds depending on the size of the bird. It takes a catching team of six people, an hour to load a lorry and three catching teams will load about 120,000 chicken in a night/day period for the processing factory.    

Fact:-   Traceablity is the KEY word today. Farmers know this and the BRITISH chicken that is sold in our shops and supermarkets will have been grown to these high standards if they are displaying a British flag.