Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall champions Freedom Food

The great chicken debate hits television screens again on Monday 26th January 2009, as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall continues his free-range chicken campaign. The passionate chef of River Cottage fame, steps up his mission to convince consumers to trade up to Freedom Food. ‘Chickens, Hugh and Tesco Too’ will air on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday 26th January. The programme is also expected to feature a farmer starting to farm chicken under the RSPCA’s Freedom Food scheme for the first time. The programme comes a year after separate campaigns led by the RSPCA, Hugh and Jamie Oliver highlighted some of the welfare problems of chicken production. Despite the difficult economic climate, higher welfare chicken sales have jumped significantly. This week Sainsbury’s announced that sales of its higher welfare chicken (which includes Freedom Food labelled products), have risen by more than 20% since the January 2008 campaign. Sainsbury’s stated that 18% of chicken sold will be Freedom Food labelled. Other major supermarkets and a large chicken production company have also confirmed to the RSPCA that last January's campaigns have changed shopping habits. Since the January 2008 campaign started, an RSPCA poll has found that 73% of consumers said that since recently discovering standard chickens were farmed in poor conditions, they now buy chickens that have had a better life. The number of birds reared to RSPCA welfare standards under the Freedom Food scheme or other free-range or organic standards has soared from 19 million in 2004 to 55 million in 2007. Put it in the diary: ‘Chickens, Hugh and Tesco Too’ will air on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday 26th January 2009.