Even BETTER Chicken

At Waitrose, our fresh chicken now meets Better Chicken Commitment standards. This means we source our fresh chicken from British farms that raise a slower-growing breed, with more space to peck, roost and roam.

And, to make welfare standards clearer, we’re introducing tiered on-pack labelling. 

Switching to a slower-growing breed matters. In the UK, more than one billion chickens are reared every year. To keep up with demand, many farms raise faster-growing breeds in cramped conditions. This isn’t good for the chickens, who lead inactive, short lives. Slower-growing chickens have more space to move and behave in a more natural way – doing things like foraging and dust bathing. This improves the lives of the birds, and their health and welfare outcomes are better.

While we’re raising the welfare standards across our fresh chicken, our leading existing animal welfare requirements apply to all of the birds reared for the chicken used in our prepared foods, such as ready meals, pies and sandwiches.

From September 2025, all our chicken will meet Better Chicken Commitment welfare standards, or higher.

We like to KEEP our chickens HEALTHY

•  We are one of the only UK supermarkets to have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment. Our fresh chicken is from a slower-growing breed with more space to peck, roost and roam.
•  All our chickens are reared by a group of carefully selected British farmers, who share our commitment to high standards of animal welfare. We have no intention of changing this or lowering our standards.
• All our chicken comes from birds with 20% more space than the industry standard.

• Our chickens do not need to be washed with chlorine because of the high standards of farming we insist upon. That will never change.
• The birds reared for our chicken do not have their beaks trimmed.
• We have held Compassion in World Farming’s Good Chicken Award since it began in 2010.
• We work closely with our farmers and suppliers to reduce the levels of campylobacter. Our industry-leading action plan is designed to reduce the presence of the organism, which can cause illness.

MEET the farmer

“I farm alongside my uncle Allan, whose family has been farming here for 13 generations, and we are the next custodians,” says Waitrose farmer Neill Patterson. 

"The farm historically has focused on growing crops, wheat and barley, however a decade ago we decided to rear chickens, too. Since we began, we have only been rearing chickens for Waitrose.

“I'm proud to be a Waitrose farmer as it moves to the Better Chicken Commitment. I have found the slower-growing chickens are very inquisitive, and they really enjoy pecking at all the different bits of the shed, the strings that hold the feeders and drinkers. They love the straw bales and perches. Because they are slower growing, the birds love to spend time roosting and foraging through the bales – it doesn’t take them long to pull a bale apart.”

Neill Patterson rears slower-growing chickens on his family farm as part of Waitrose's Better Chicken Commitment

‘When you’re walking through a group of birds, it’s nice to see them performing all their natural behaviours, from foraging to playing, resting and dustbathing’

“We’re proud of the chickens we raise, and we put a lot of care and attention into them. That is the key to what we do – making sure we do all we can to ensure the birds are happy and comfortable.

“Since we started raising chickens for Waitrose, it’s been a reliable income for our farm. Receiving a fair price for our work is so important, and it’s a major advantage to working with Waitrose. It helps ensure our families can continue to farm for generations to come.”