Omega 3 chicken ‘as nutritious as oily fish’

Birds fed on seaweed algae

IF YOU struggle to get the children to eat enough omega 3 because they’re not keen on fish, this could be the answer – a chicken packed full of the nutrient.

Omega 3 is key to a healthy heart and is also thought to be good for brain development.

Until now, the best way to consume it was to eat oily fish such as sardines, fresh salmon or tuna.

However, tomorrow Waitrose is launching a fresh chicken that will provide the same benefits.

A first for the British high street, the innovation results from feeding algae, from the family of aquatic plants that includes kelp and seaweed, to the chicken.

Patrick Wall, Professor of Public

‘Huge impact on health’

Health at University College Dublin, said it would ‘revolutionise nutrition’.

He added: ‘The idea that you can make an everyday product healthier suggests you could have a huge impact on health.’

Initial trials found a 12 per cent increase in blood omega 3 levels, and measurable effects on cardiovascular health, after individuals ate the chicken for just five weeks.

The tests were carried out on 30 healthy participants whose omega 3 levels were measured after one, three and five weeks of eating three servings of the chicken per week.

Consumers can already buy eggs with raised levels of omega 3, which also come from chickens given algae in their feed. But this is the first time people will be able to buy chicken meat containing raised levels of the nutrient.

Waitrose is charging £3.59 a kilo for the whole omega chicken, and will also sell it in breast fillet packs, drumsticks and thighs.

The innovation is the result of a ten-year development programme by Waitrose, its chicken suppliers, Moy Park, and animal nutrition specialists Devenish Nutrition.

The chickens are reared on farms in Northern Ireland, which are not free range, but operate to Waitrose’s welfare standards.

Official dietary advice is that people should eat at least one portion of oily fish a week. Research suggests less than one in four adults meet this target but the figure is lower for children.