Sure, poultry is versatile, tastes great and provides a lot of high-quality protein and essential nutrients such as blood-forming iron and zinc, which strengthens the immune system. That’s why we like it so much. But now we’re shopping with a queasy feeling: how was the chicken raised? What exactly is the difference between a conventional broiler chicken and an organic chicken? In Germany and the EU, confusingly different forms of husbandry are permitted, e.g. B. extensive barn husbandry, free-range husbandry, rural free-range husbandry. And intensive fattening still exists and, in stark contrast to it, organic poultry farming.
Cheap through intensive
fattening If you look at the prices, you will notice the enormous range. A chicken breast from conventional fattening sometimes costs only five euros per kilogram in the supermarket. You pay up to 30 euros per kilo for an organic chicken breast. The price difference reflects the different effort involved in keeping them. The cheapest rearing is intensive fattening, usually operated with specially bred, fast-growing breeds that develop a lot of muscle meat in a very short time. Within just one month, the animals are brought to a specified “desired weight” with special feed and medication. And: In intensive fattening, a chicken shares one square meter of barn space with around 25 other chickens. It knows no daylight and must spend its short life on the same litter.
Quality takes time
If you don’t want all that, buy organic . In principle, neither antibiotics nor other medications are used here. The animals have sufficient outdoor exercise and at least 81 days to grow. Their feed consists mainly of organic grain grown on the farm. The longer lifespan, the correspondingly higher feed requirement, the feed quality and larger stable areas increase the costs. That explains the high prices for organic poultry. Other forms of animal husbandry such as extensive floor husbandry or free-range farming are hardly any alternatives: the outdoor conditions are better than in intensive fattening, but at 12 to 15 animals per square meter they are not species-appropriate either, and the chickens get e.g. B. fattening feed and medicines.
Only where the organic seal is stuck on it is it actually organic
. Meat from organic farming is marked accordingly. If there is no organic seal on the packaging, the meat most likely comes from intensive fattening, possibly also from extensive barn or free-range husbandry. Manufacturers like to leave consumers in the dark on this point. Imprints such as “Fresh poultry from the country” or “100% balanced feeding” are intended to simulate organic, but have no meaningful value.
Do you need to save when shopping? Then you can only enjoy high-quality meat once a week, but with an all-round good feeling. We have used organic poultry in our recipes and will continue to do so in the future. We were convinced by the taste and the species-appropriate rearing.
