Highlights
- Eight restaurant groups owning 18 chains, including KFC, Burger King and Nando's, have left the Better Chicken Commitment.
- The chains have joined the industry-led Sustainable Chicken Forum, which does not require sourcing slower-growing breeds .
- Animal welfare groups have condemned the move, calling it "welfare-washing" driven purely by profit.
Animal welfare groups describe fast-growing chickens as "franken-chickens" birds that mature faster but suffer higher rates of premature death and muscle disease. The move comes as demand for chicken as a lean protein continues to surge across the UK.
Industry defends decision
Trade body UKHospitality, whose CEO Allen Simpson told BBC that the businesses remain "committed to enhancing their ongoing work across welfare and the environment," argued that farming slower-growing breeds produces more greenhouse gas emissions and does not meet current supply demands.
The SCF said members "no longer believe the BCC is the right framework to drive the next phase of progress on welfare." An industry source confirmed there is not yet a large enough supply of slower-growing poultry in the UK to meet demand.
KFC, which buys around 4 per cent of the UK's chicken supply, had already rescinded its commitment to phase out fast-growing chicken in 2024.
Welfare groups react
However, animal welfare organisations reacted furiously." Animal welfare group Anima International said the change was "about money and nothing else." Its UK chief executive Connor Jackson said the companies' explanation for leaving is "rubbish."
Claire Williams of The Humane League UK told BBC "Major food companies, with the combined worth of many billions of pounds, have decided that their profit margins cannot be threatened," describing the SCF as "a welfare-washing, PR-stunt."
Meanwhile, retailers including M&S, Waitrose, Pret and Greggs remain members of the Better Chicken Commitment.
