Chicken sales 'defy TV campaign'

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Sales of intensively reared chicken appear to have risen despite a TV campaign to get customers to purchase free-range poultry instead.

The campaign was led by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on his recent Hugh's Chicken Run shows for Channel 4.

Directly after the series was aired, Tesco said sales of standard chickens increased by 7% and free-range by 3%.

Sainsbury's free-range sales have gone up by 50% but there were also more of its Basics label chickens being bought.

Conditions compared

The campaign two weeks ago aimed to persuade shoppers that intensively reared chicken meat damaged animal welfare.

During one of the programmes, Fearnley-Whittingstall set up his own intensive chicken unit.

It was created alongside a free-range operation to compare the conditions the birds were raised in.

The British Poultry Council, which represents poultry producers, said chicken sales had risen across the board.

It put the increase down to the reassurances farmers gave about the way intensively reared birds were treated.