Freedom Food Chicken

No SFMTA industry practioners could be fielded so Douglas Scott attended.

Other attendees:_
Pam Rodway, Food for Life Manager, Scotland.
Mike Ward, Food for Life Manager, Scotland
Juliette Wilson, Soil Association
Liz Button, Area Manager, East Ayrshire Council
Andrew Kennedy, East Ayrshire Council
Marion Ross, Highland Council
Matt Lewis, Vion Uk
Johnathan Whitehead, Livestock Manager, SFQC
Lyn Mathieson, Agric Soil Association

This is the first meeting I have attended where volcanic dust was the first topic. Two key speakers for Freedom Foods could not fly in. First step to see what could be done next to allow public procurement of Freedom Food chicken. Chicken is a challenge because lots of school children and students eat chicken.

FOOD FOR LIFE PARTNERSHIP

Food for Life Catering Mark menu criteria include:

Bronze
• Meals contain no undesirable food additives or hydrogenated fats
• 75% of dishes are freshly prepared
• Meat meets UK welfare standards and eggs are from cage free hens
• Menus are seasonal
• Well trained catering staff
• No GM ingredients

Silver (in addition to Bronze criteria)
• A range of local, organic and fair trade food is served
• High welfare chicken, eggs and pork products are served (at least Freedom Food or free range – equalling the baseline commitment made by leading supermarkets)
• No fish is served from the Marine Conservation Society 'fish to avoid' list
• Information is on display about where the food has come from

Gold (in addition to Bronze and Silver criteria)
• At least 30% of ingredients are organic or Marine Stewardship Council certified
• At least 50% of ingredients are locally sourced
• Organic meat, dairy products or eggs are served as the highest welfare standard
• Non-meat dishes are being promoted as part of a balanced, climate-friendly diet

Concept appeared in 2003 and grown to include all issues to improve the quality of life for school children and beyond. Like minded organisations come together to obtain funding £16.9m (over 5 years) from the Big Lottery Fund for a project in England in 3600 schools, inc 180 flagship school. Flagships will be a “beacon” of good practice. 1900 currently signed up, but critical mass will grow towards the end of the project. Covers the 9 Regional Development Areas.

Job is to facilitate procurement of local, seasonal, higher welfare, organic. Minimum standard is farm assured; next up is the standards set by Freedom Food Scheme. Problem – cost. Analysis of school meal menus shows the incidence of chicken on average – 3 times in a week cycle. There are 8 million schoolchildren in England therefore demand on Freedom Food could be considerable.

Average cost of a school meal with main course and pudding is between £1.70 and £2.20. Ingredients spend ranges from 55p in Bolton to 95p elsewhere with the difference in wages and overheads.

Higher quality chicken would mean an increase the number of non meat days. Fridays are traditionally pizza and/or fish and chips. Particularly with pressure on local authority budget there is no slack in the system.

50g IQF is specification but FF extra cost rest of carcase goes to conventional market, therefore important to develop taste for darker meat. Need to look at whole carcase utilisation.

Delivery is a big issue; A small primary needing 2 kilos of chicken may not have storage space for holding larger orders.

Availability:- How many suppliers in the market? Not enough. Two sisters and Vion have large part of market.

Would Food for Life dilute their standard?
Core principles that they will not move away from.

Misconceptions / misunderstanding have been flushed out e.g. cannot serve chicken with bones to children.

Now 150,000 Food for Life Partnership standards meals are served in England everyday.

15,000 daily Highland and 5,000 daily East Ayrshire [- Food for Life Partnership stats]. Highland includes chicken twice per week at moment but not Freedom Food. Childrens menu at Celtic Football Club serves organic chicken and Cawdor Castle, visitor attraction, Nairn is the only other outlet in Scotland named as currently serving Freedom Chicken.

Independent and Special schools in Scotland (Donaldsons Harmony) are interested.

Pam Rodway feels more strategic thinking is required.

Vion kill 2.85m per week, employ 4,500. Coupar Angus 850,000 per week, including 10,000 organic, 70,000 FFFR, 620,000 Red Tractor (ACP), 150,000 Vion Higher Welfare. UK chicken 16m per week.

Sales in last year.
Dark meat up to 22% from 20%. Fillet now 24% from 27%. Economy chicken (min welfare standard & blemish) moved from <10% to almost 20% in last 6 months. Tesco, Asda and Somerfield all use imported chicken. M & S, Waitrose all source UK chicken. British label is still confusing because British because of last point of material processing. Vion kill Halal chicken at Coupar Angus. Specifications:- ACP Red Tractor
Slaughtered between 37 and 52 days old. . Chicks sexed at hatchery so that different weight ranges can be grown if desired. Double weight every 3 days. Housed at 32 0F, then reduced gradually.

Vion Higher Welfare.
Co-op and Somerfield. Reared under natural daylight; mainly in Scotland. Environment enrichment extra bales, slaughtered between 37 and 52 days old.

Freedom Food
Hubbard slow growing breed max 19bird /m2
56 days old minimum (20 more days at a lower stocking rate.)
Sainsbury do woodland farms FR but do have problem with badgers and birds of prey. Foxes to a lesser extent. Rats, pine martins can also be problem.

Organic
All Vion organic chicken reared and grown in Scotland, mainly in the area from Inverness->Aberdeen->Dundee. Maximum 1000, usually 200-400 per mobile house. Windows, not heated, fully organic system. Mobile – because houses need to be moved to new ground to prevent worms, disease etc. Vion currently losing money on organic chicken.

Soil Association report 12.04.2010. Organic production down and sales down 12.9%.

OUTCOMES/ ACTIONS AGREED

1. Do paper exercise to trace feasibility of Vion supplying butchers.
2. Engage more butchers.
3. Replicate for larger number of people.
4. Establish a list of people who should be invited.