NUMBER OF SUPPLIERS, PLANTS AND BROLIER HOUSES
Ultimately, we want to keep the number of suppliers, plants and chicken barns we use to a minimum because it is easier to maintain and raise standards & practices and ensures we have as little impact as possible on the agricultural system. We’re happy with the current level we’re at but in the long-term we’ll be looking to have fewer suppliers, plants and chicken barns in use.
ENVIROMENTAL ENRICHMENT
The figures show that, as industry standards go , we are already in a good place, with over 30% enrichment and 40% natural daylight achieved throughout 2018. Of course, ultimately, we want to be at 100% as we believe it plays an integral part in making the lives of our chickens better. Our role moving forward is to use this data to educate and demand change from our suppliers.
STOCKING DENSITY
Our average stocking density across our suppliers is currently at 36kg/m2, which is much lower than the legal requirement of 39kg/m2, and also betters the 38kg/m2 laid out in our welfare policy. We want to take this even further, which is why we are encouraging our suppliers to stock at 30kg/m2. While there’s still a way to go to achieve this, we will be working with our suppliers to use this data to find ways to bring stocking density down in a way that does not raise prices beyond a level that our customers will accept.
STUNNING METHOD
All chicken sold at KFC is stunned before slaughter, and we ensure that this is done in the most humane way possible. We prefer the use of atmospheric stunning as science has shown that minimises the stress on the chickens, so our focus moving forward will be to look to increase the percentage of atmospheric stunning plants we source from.
We also operate a number of Halal restaurants and as the Halal community only accept meat that has been stunned electrically, a proportion of the chicken we source will need to remain electrically stunned. Taking this into account, 49% of our non-halal chicken is stunned electrically. In terms of reducing this figure we see ourselves as half way there and our aim is to decrease this even further moving forward.
BROILER AGE EXTENSION
Just like consumers and leading NGOs, we want to use slower growing chicken breeds as they have a longer life and better health performance. Unfortunately, this can’t happen overnight, and we can’t do this on our own. The change to slower growing broiler breeds can only be achieved with industry wide change, and so our data is going to provide a useful tool in encouraging this as we talk to our suppliers as the wider industry.
