Chicken and turkey are the most common kinds of poultry sold today, often as value-added products. Poultry cuts and an increasing number of skinless and/or boneless products now meet caterers demand for convenient, lower fat, portion-controlled items.

This shift away from whole carcass birds creates special challenges for buyers, whether they are producing specific and elaborate new menu ideas for a small restaurant, or volume products for the discerning consumer.

All of which can rely on Wilson's poultry grading services to ensure that their requirements for quality, weight, condition, and other factors are met.

With today's cultural focus on lean low-fat meats, combined with our change of lifestyles, British consumers are eating more chicken products than ever before. According to the British Poultry Meat Federation (BPMF), an industry lead organisation, we ate 3.7% more chicken in 1999 than the previous year.

With a retail market worth £1.75 billion! in 1999 - the chicken market has now a staggering 32% share of all meat sales. The value added and further processed market has been accountable for much of the increase.

Although the sales figures are staggering, what is even more so, is that it is in spite of consumer concerns (animal welfare - growth hormones etc.).

To address the misperceptions the BPMF have started the Assured Chicken Protection (ACP) scheme in March 2000. Please check out our links page for further information. This scheme addresses the whole industry from the welfare of the chicks through to you the end user.

Although this initiative is new, at Wilsons we full endorse this standard and will hope to play our part in supporting producers who sign up for it.