Tesco Slammed Over Sale Of Travel-Sick Chicken

Thu, 20 Mar 2008
 
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Supermarket giant Tesco has come under fire from environmentalists for sending chicken labelled as 'local' on a 1,000-mile round trip to be slaughtered and packaged before going on sale .

According to newspaper reports the retailer is currently sending poultry reared on a site in North-East Scotland 499 miles to Essex to be processed before being returned to Scotland for selling.

Vicki Hird, member of environmental group Friends of the Earth, hit out at the supermarket, saying: "Consumers thinking they are buying greener, local and Scottish are actually buying pretty travel-sick chicken ."

"How many more unnecessary food miles do Tesco's centralised, mass-produced systems result in?"

Environmental campaigners have stressed that the Tesco system only adds to the growing level of carbon emissions while clocking up unnecessary food miles.

In response, Tesco said it was left with "no other option" but to send its chickens on the long-distance journey because of last year’s closure of a packaging plant in Aberdeenshire, Scotland .

The supermarket chain refused to comment on how many chickens were being sent to Essex but said the situation would be resolved later this year.

Max Tooley, Tesco's meat technical manager for poultry, said that the situation would soon be changed with the approval of a new processing plant in Scotland, adding the firm’s packaging could be switched to the new site within the next two weeks.

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