Single hen

[The Dogmother]

Did anyone see this article in the Daily Mail today? Dissing organic chicken - Just what we don't need!

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=420273&in_page_id=1770

 

What a load of utter pants!

 

What makes me mad is that they'll completely turn around in a few days and print an article about how good organic produce is for you.

[kazaddress]

I have left a comment

 

What a load of old cobblers.

 

There are 2 completely separate issues here. One is the type of feed, and the other is the welfare of the hens, which seem to have been muddled.

 

The fact that the corn / feed which the chickens eat have no chemicals in would bare no change on the nutrition the chickens get!

 

However because free range hens burn off fat while walking / scratching around, it means the bird is most likely not as fatty, which might make a difference to the taste (as fats play in important part in the complex taste process).

 

I found mass produced chickens to taste slimy, and had a tendency to shrivel up to nothing once cooked.

 

I have been eating organic for a number of years (and now have a couple of my own hens). I would choose organic free range meat over battery / mass produced any day! The same way I would choose ethically produced clothing rather then things produced by child labour!

[Beauty-Box]

 

What a shame they have put such rubbish in a paper!

 

I'm a veggie, but buy organic chickens for my family and they much prefer the organic birds. I wouldn't buy battery chickens ever again! Especially when you see how they are kept.

[Lesley]

I wonder who they used for the taste test?

 

I can't comment on the taste of our chicken because I hadn't eaten chicken for so long prior to rearing our own but we cooked 4 last Christmas and the rest of the family were raving for days about the flavour - not just a polite comment on the day which is all that would have been necessary.

 

Ours are Ross/Cob breed and they do carry some fat if allowed to get big - but we are able to make really crispy and tasty roast potatoes around the chicken - which I believe isn't usually done with mass produced chickens?

 

I'd rather know how my chicken was raised and know it hasn't been routinely fed with antibiotics or have GM products in their feed.

[The Dogmother]

I'd rather know how my chicken was raised and know it hasn't been routinely fed with antibiotics or have GM products in their feed.

 

Me too Lesley. The freerange, organically fed, non-medicated chooks that I get from the lady at Stratford market taste totally different from mass-produced pap, and the meat is much moister too.

[The Dogmother]

Just read throught the newspaper article again and I see that it doesn' tmention which company sponsored the research into the 'taste and nutritional value' of organic chicken - bet it was one of the supermarkets. The hack who wrote the article was Fiona MacRae ( f.macrae@dailymail.co.uk ) I might just email her to ask, anyone else joining me......?

[Mrs Frugal]

My dad told me all about this at the weekend and I've told him not to listen to such rubbish! Eating hens raised in appalling circumstances is not right so he and Mum are sticking with free range or they'll have me to deal with !

[Lesley]

I wrote to her Clare - the article seemed to be lacking in factual detail and written as a sensationalist piece to attract attention.

[The Dogmother]

Brilliant Lesley! I'll fire one off too when I've had a moment to think about it.

[Lesley]

Oh, I didn't think about it - just opened my mouth as usual!!

[PurpleHen]

We had roast organic free range chicken on Sunday - it was delicious

 

It's a shame we don't eat it more often, but we don't eat much meat now due to financial constraints (of buying organic / free range...)