If you’re sitting down with the family for a roast chicken with all the trimmings today, you are not alone. Poultry now accounts for nearly half of all the meat bought in Britain, new figures reveal. If the trend continues, this year chicken will pass the 50 per cent benchmark for the first time, according to the trade body, the British Poultry Council (BPC). It means an end to our reputation as a red meat-eating nation that led the French to nicknaming us ‘les rosbifs’ (the roast beefs). Instead, a steady rise in sales of chicken coupled with a fall for beef, pork and lamb has led to a change in this country’s daily diet – and we now eat 2.2million chickens a day. Industry figures for shop-bought meat show that in March last year chicken accounted for 46 per cent of the total. Ten years ago it made up just a third of meat bought. Poultry is considered by some experts to be healthier than red meat and it has emerged unscathed from public health scares such as BSE, foot and mouth and horsemeat contamination. And with 70 per cent of all chicken in the UK being home-reared, it also satisfies those who prefer to buy British. But increasingly, the biggest factor could be the the meat’s relatively low price, according to retail industry analysts Kantar. Lamb prices, for instance, have doubled over the same period and beef has gone up by 50 per cent. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2467872/How-chicken-flew-shopping-lists-Brits-eat-2-2m-birds-A-DAY.html
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 12:18:48 +0000
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