To think that chicken is produced in the UK?

My grandmother used to keep chickens and she cooked up the most evil smelling concoction for their feed - the eggs were great though and at Christmas one would be killed for her Christmas lunch. I would help by plucking the chicken but refused to "draw" it, when that was being done I left the room! (wuss emoticon)

I had a lot of fun with my daughter's hens in New Zealand. She is now successfully breeding from them. The eggs taste quite different from supermarket eggs and keep their shape when poached.
If you have even a small garden, you could start to keep your own hens - they are very interesting to watch and each has her own personality. I am sure many of you are already doing this. I wish I could but it is not practicable in a second floor flat!

I would happily eat locally bred chicken in Thailand.

The chicken I ate in Thailand was always very good and very fresh, as was all the other food, now I think about it.

I shop in supermarkets but ALWAYS read the labels and buy British produced fresh meat and produce. Some time ago I opened a sandwich and found a tiny cobweb in the corner of the packet - dumped sandwich and haven't bought one since

mishap please put the link to your other thread on here, I can't find it and want to 'sign up'. I would buy British as much as possible.

Last year we went on a road trip to Devon and ended up in Lynmouth in a small 14th century hotel and happened to see the local farmer bring in a big box of fresh produce, we decided then and there to eat in the hotel restaurant that night. The chef proudly told us that he only uses local meat and produce and it was the best meal I have eaten in a long, long time.

NfkDumpling, yes, I mainly eat vegetarian outside the house and frequently feel I get the better deal. The quality of all kinds of meat in chain restaurants is abysmal.

Fortunately I have always loved vegetables and vegetarian meals have always formed a normal part of my families diet.

Free range and organic can also be imported and maybe the accreditation not totally honest. Free range is especially iffy in this country let alone elsewhere - it may be for instance that the animal/chicken is only 'free range' for a day or two before slaughter. Organic implies without the use of chemicals but in fact some of the alternatives are even more dangerous.

I do the same Flickety, but it can lead to a very restricted menu in chain restaurants. I'm becoming increasingly veggie when eating out.

I have stopped eating chicken outside my own, or friends and families homes not only because of my concerns about the welfare standards of poultry imported from overseas but also concern about the quality of life of chickens reared in the UK.

As Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's programmes last(?) year showed last year officially acceptable standards are very low.

I buy only free range or organic chicken. More expensive but I just serve smaller portions and eat it less frequently.

Lived and worked in Thailand where they produced labels saying Made in France, Made in almost anywhere - and, of course, we have no control over anything put into the product. If supermarkets ask us to pay more will they reform and buy British - nope - already there are 'ways around' labelling imported allsorts - will they just pocket the difference - yup. The only way to be sure of what you are eating is buy it yourself locally, and cook it, wrap it, spread it, yourself.

An-other tale - a major supermarket ran out of 'welsh lamb' - their policy was to load lorries with lamb, drive it over the border into Wales, let the driver sleep over, and the consignment gets re-labelled the next day as Welsh Lamb. And I truly had that from the horse's [hah] mouth.

Just found an email from someone at Tesco customer services saying that she understands my concerns (oh good) about chicken coming from Thailand and that they are working to ensure that all their fresh chicken will be from the UK, but for some reason, not their frozen chicken or the stuff in their ready meals. I know their wraps aren't frozen, but are they not a form of ready meal? Safer just not to buy them, I think!

Well done, Mishap - I've just read the other thread. You're quite right; we need to keep on at these people until they realise that while there is a place for cheap food there are also problems with making cheapness the only criterion for deciding what to put in it.

Nfk, I am now going to be able to blame the steroids in my chicken wrap when I next weigh myself and find I've put on half a stone.

if anyone wants to put on Facebook or Twitter that someone has told them about Tesco making their chicken wraps with chicken from Thailand, go ahead! It might be worth having a go at Pizza Express too. again

Thanks Glass and if you could steal the biscuit recipe The Feathersy serve with the coffee I will be forever in your debt

Mishap I don't know about GNHQ, but Gransnet Edinburgh mentions it on their Facebook page.

When I'm not a great user of social media (facebook, twitter etc) but have found it can be useful, especially in relation to complaints.

Just as an example, I had a problem with some paint from B&Q recently, used the "contact us" section on their website, no response even after around 4 weeks.

Then posted a comment on their facebook page and got a response within an hour!

Thing is, complain via their website, only they see it, put it on facebook or twitter, the whole world (metaphorically) sees it!

stan you should Have dropped in for a cuppa I live 5 mins from the pub.[grin ] I am with you all on this I am Off to See other thread.

I have taken the liberty of starting a new thread about encouraging online supermarkets to have a UK produced section and as you will see Tesco have rung me and said that this is in the pipeline.

I think that the more people who contact them to say they want this, the quicker more supermarkets will jump on the bandwagon, as it is a good selling point.

Farmers'markets are brilliant for those who are mobile and can get there, but some of us need to shop online and would like to have the choice to buy British

There are plenty of Farmers Markets around. Local farmers will have farm shops as well. There seem to be no end of restaurants which tell you who their suppliers are. We went to a pub recently at hedley on the hill and they gave us a list of their suppliers .

I'm with you Mishap but not just for home deliveries.

Today, my lovely butcher closed his shop for the last time (they are building a road through his shop) and I'm now floundering a bit about where to buy our meat as I have been buying from him for over 30 years and the options to buy locally sourced stuff seem to be dwindling fast.

I have been tempted to contact the main supermarkets that do home deliveries to suggest that they should have a section of UK produced products so that those of us who want to buy British can do so without having to sift through the details of each item.

After reading this post maybe I will get on and do it - anyone else willing to join in? Perhaps gransnet would like to start a campaign?

When supermarkets say that they will source their chicken in the UK, they mean whole chickens or chicken portions, not sandwich fillings or even pie fillings unless they have specified these. The reason it comes from Thailand is that it is cheaper than British chicken – even including all the air miles.

Also - i was told by my Austalian cousin that apparently Thai chicken often has added steroids - hence the increase in man boobs in Oz where they import a lot of Thai chickens.

This gets more and more ridiculous, doesn't it?

If it's ready made chances are it's not British.

I was shocked to find Pizza Express chicken comes from Brazil!