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A London
chain of Indian restaurants is switching to free range chicken at a
personal cost to the owner of £150,000 a year - after he watched
TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's impassioned TV plea recently.
Jamal Hirani, CEO and founder of
Tiffinbites, says the move - which will increase food costs at his
group of London restaurants by around £3,000 a week - is in
direct response to the plight of intensively reared broiler chickens
highlighted by Fearnley-Whittingstall in his series 'Hugh's Chicken
Run', screened on Channel 4 last week.
It will make Tiffinbites the UK's
first Indian restaurant group to go free range - and Jamal is
promising menu prices will not increase to account for the higher
chicken costs.
Jamal said: "Hugh's
Chicken Run series has really affected the nation. We immediately
began receiving queries from customers as to the nature of the
chicken we serve, and myself and all staff included instantly knew
that we had to ensure all our poultry was free range. Although it's
challenging to source free range chicken, it's a move that we hope
other Indian restaurants will follow."
Suppliers, however, are cashing
in on the interested generated by the Channel 4 series with
significant cost increases. A broiler chicken before would have set
Tiffinbites back £1.88 per kg, but now this cost is set to rise
to £4.88 per kg for free range birds.
Jamal added: "Poultry
suppliers have been quick to spot the profit opportunity. Many
restaurants may seek to maintain the higher costs by increasing menu
prices. At Tiffinbites, however, we believe that our customers
shouldn't have to pay for the privilege of eating free range chicken,
and as a result are committed to keeping our menu prices at the same
level as before. We're urging other Indian restaurants and food
organisations to the same."
For Tiffinbites, £3,000 a
week is equivalent to a week's staff wages in one restaurant or one
ton of basmati rice. Each restaurant will need to serve an extra 600
meals week to account for the extra cost.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
described the move by Tiffinbites as 'brilliant news', adding: "Obviously
the Indian restaurant sector accounts for phenomenal amounts of
chicken sales - and mostly these are all standard, intensively farmed birds.
"We hope many other
Indian restaurants, both independent and chains, will follow
Tiffinbites excellent example, and decide to go free range."
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