Are there ugly fresh chickens?
We have all heard about how fruits and vegetables are being wasted due to cosmetic filtering, but do you know fresh chickens undergo the same treatment as well? A life reared to ultimately be killed for food is already horrible, now it is killed to be thrown?
Simply unthinkable.
Yet it is happening. Thousands of fresh chickens are being thrown away on a daily basis because they do not hit the requirements to be models on the display freezers. Here is a list of why fresh chickens get thrown away:
1. Sizing
Of course, the most obvious one. Just like all living things, an average number of days is needed to grow a chicken to a certain size. The most popular sizing – 1.2kg chickens – takes about 32 days to grow. However, just like all living things, not all chickens grow to 1.2kg in 32 days. Some grow bigger, some are still just tiny. Regardless, these chickens are usually thrown away since they are too small or big to be displayed on retail shelves. “They would stand out like a sore thumb amidst all the 1.2kg”.
Besides, automated machines these days are made to only process chickens of a certain sizing. In fact, one of the companies we met recently only take in chickens that are 1.75kg (yes, that precise) because their automated chicken cutter can only take that size.
2. Injuries
Alright, slaughtering is not a pretty process guys. The slaughterhouses work tirelessly, and chickens knowing that they are going to be killed won’t just sit there. Loads of knocking around the cages when idling, and workers have to hold them down sometimes. At times, these struggles and relatively forceful handling do result in bruises and broken bones.
Have you ever seen a displayed fresh chicken with such injuries? No? Well, point proven.
3. Anomalies
Chickens, like all other living things, will have deformed parts sometimes. Uneven sizing of wings, overgrown thighs, etc. Although genetic selection, and relatively better farming conditions have reduced the chances of deformities from happening, they will still happen. However, we have checked with chefs and slaughterhouses, such deformities are never harmful (cancerous/bacterial growth is another thing altogether). These chickens are definitely still more than fit enough for consumption!
4. Over-stocking/production
Remember when we said there is a chance for the fresh chickens to not come out the sizing they want despite rearing for a certain duration? What do you think these farmers/slaughterhouses will do to prevent themselves from breaching their contracted volume of sized chickens?
Rear more of course! If I need to supply 10,000 1.2kg fresh chickens a day, I will just simply rear 15,000 1.2kg fresh chickens in case some of them fall short or over the sizing. This just means more is being produced than required. Doesn’t take a genius to know what happens to those over produced ones.
5. Storage Issues
I know some of you are thinking, since there are people out there who will use these fresh chickens, and overproduced chickens can still be the right size – why not just store it and sell it after?
Well, you will be right if fresh chickens don’t come in on a daily basis. There is almost no storage for fresh chickens as it will then be considered fresh frozen which is lower in value. Also, storage isn’t exactly a very cheap thing either. Higher cost, and lower margins? Who will be willing to undertake this?
We have been working with various poultry slaughterhouses to help them re-distribute these fresh chickens. As our favourite saying goes – one man’s meat is another man’s poison – there is always a use for undersized/oversized chickens out there in the market. For injured and deformed chickens, we have also managed to process and re-distribute them accordingly.
By doing so, we managed to help businesses increase their margins by allowing them to procure cheap fresh chickens at almost 50% discount from their usual prices (whoopie!) and saving them from the bin at the same time. Slaughterhouses and farms are happy too since they have us to take care of their logistics! Doing the same thing as what they always have been but earning extra income, these farms and slaughterhouses are more than happy.
Interested to find out more or know someone who might be? Simply hit us up here or drop us a comment to see what we can do for you!