WASHINGTON — The National Chicken Council, the United States’ oldest and largest national association representing the U.S. broiler chicken industry (chickens raised for meat), has rolled out a set of industry-wide standards for broiler chicken welfare — the “Chicken Guarantees.”
The standards are launched as part of NCC’s Chicken Check-In program, which serves as a resource for consumers to get the information they are seeking about how meat chickens are raised.
“NCC and its members remain wholly committed to advancing chicken welfare, continuous improvement and consumer choice,” said Ashley Peterson, NCC senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs. “But consumers today are constantly being bombarded with negatives on labeling — no preservatives, no hormones, no additives, no this, never that. Through our Chicken Guarantees, we want to provide the baseline principles that always hold true, no matter what chicken you eat.”
With U.S. chicken consumption at an all-time high, the Chicken Guarantees represent a set of consumer assurances to ensure people have simple, clear and accurate information regarding how their chicken is cared for and raised.
No matter which welfare standards a chicken company adheres to, or whether the birds were raised conventionally, organic, without antibiotics or free range, for example, these principles hold true:
For more information about the Chicken Guarantees, visit www.chickencheck.in/chicken-guarantees.
