Animal welfare:a new report certifies the suffering of Lidl chickens

90% of chicken breasts sold on Lidl supermarket shelves are affected by white striping, a disease indicative of poor animal welfare, which affects between 50 and 90% of chickens belonging to fast-growing breeds, widely used in intensive farming.This is what emerges from the latest report published byessereanimali - a foundation that has always been involved in the battle against the practice of intensive farming – which examined over 600 samples of chicken breast packages in dozens of Lidl stores in 11 cities across the country, from North to South.Although all the containers analyzed had indications on the label such as "certified product", "controlled supply chain", "use of natural light", "environmental enrichments to encourage natural behaviours", the results revealed how 9 out of 10 products present the white streaks typical of white striping, which run parallel to the muscle fibers of the meat, with important consequences on its nutritional value.More than half of the samples analyzed, however, show high levels of severity of the disease.

The organization has examined the products by collecting photographs in 38 stores in the Lidl circuit between December 2023 and January 2024.Each image was subsequently scored with a score of 0 (no sign of white striping) to 3 (evident presence of white striping).And, in all points of sale, the presence of white striping it was widely found in chicken breast packages, with scores of 2 and 3 in more than half of the cases.“The studies published so far have demonstrated a correlation between the presence of white striping And the increase in growth rate, slaughter weight and high breast yield”, he wrote in the Being Animali report, highlighting how the most probable explanation traces the appearance of the streaks of white striping to the "physiological growth of the rest of the body", which "is unable to keep pace with the unnatural and excessively rapid growth of the muscles".Rapidly growing chickens, in fact, "have muscles so large that they have difficulty getting the quantities of blood necessary for nourishment to all the muscle fibers:in the absence of oxygen their muscles become inflamed and die.”So, when this happens, “the place of dead muscle fibers is occupied and filled by fibrous and fatty tissue (the white streaks typical of white striping)”.All this has a strong impact on the nutritional value of chicken meat, which obviously decreases.As reported in the report, an important study published in 2014 entitled “Effect of White Striping on Chemical Composition and Nutritional Value of Chicken Breast Meat” showed a 224% increase in fat content, a 9% decrease in protein and a 10% increase in collagen compared to chicken meat not affected by this disease.“These results should be a wake-up call for all those who continue to deny the link between rapid growth and meat quality – wrote the Foundation in the conclusions of its research -.Not only do chickens suffer due to rapid growth, but it is now increasingly evident that too the quality of the meat on sale suffers as a result.If, as it states in its communications, Lidl is serious about providing its customers with truly nutritious and sustainable food, it must commit today to eliminating the main causes of suffering for chickens raised in their supply chains by signing the European Chicken Commitment".

At the end of 2022, Being Animals already had conducted an investigation into two intensive farms in northern Italy belonging to a Lidl supplier which had revealed disturbing results, testifying the suffering to which farmed chickens are destined.The filming carried out byessereanimali had documented bone deformations caused by the rapid growth to which the chickens are subjected, neurological disorders due to infections or vitamin deficiencies, burns on the chest due to rubbing with the litter full of ammonia for the excrement, as well as the deaths of the animals due to extreme breeding conditions and mistreatment e the bloody killings carried out by operators.Undercover investigations of this type, which have documented the systematic cruelty of farmed chickens, have also been conducted in other European countries in recent years.The wave of indignation was so uniform that drive to the organization of a strong protest action against Lidl which, in the week from 30 October to 5 November 2023, brought together thousands of activists in Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Poland and Sweden.

[by Stefano Baudino]

Cover photo credits:@Being Animals