Consumers find it hard to avoid factory-farmed chicken

Nearly three-quarters of the chicken and chicken products on Dutch supermarket shelves comes from birds which have been fast-bred on factory farms, according to animal welfare lobby group Wakker Dier.

This means consumers have little option than to buy what has become known as plofkip (exploding chicken), the name given to birds which have been raised to maturity in a few weeks.

‘If you want to buy drumsticks, chicken wings  or burgers, you usually have no alternative,’ said a spokesman. Supermarkets Deen and Coop have the best range of non factory-farmed chicken and Jumbo, Hoogvliet and C1000 the worst, Wakker Dier said.

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