How healthy is your chicken?
Organic chicken is much in demand among consumers who want safe and tasty meal options, writes Meera Murugesan
WHEN I was 11, I followed my dad to the market and came back with three little chicks.
They were cute and chirpy and I was delighted with my new “pets”.
I fed them table scraps and worms. They foraged freely in our garden and grew into healthy chickens.
Little did I realise then that I had inadvertently got myself involved in raising freerange organic chickens.
Chicken is one of the most affordable and widely eaten sources of protein in the country, but like everything else, health-conscious consumers today want their chicken meat to be safe and free of antibiotics, growth hormones and other substances which are commonly used in conventional poultry farming.
Food safety demands among consumers have led to the demand for organic produce and has encouraged poultry industry players to raise and produce chicken organically, says veterinary consultant Dr Gulam Shah Faizal Din.
The goal should be to provide wholesome, quality meat which is safe for consumption, he adds.
“This is because the use of antibiotics and medicaments in poultry farming has led to unfavorable outcomes such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”
SAFE AND TASTY
Organic chicken, on the other hand, is free of these elements and also tends to have less fat than chicken bred commercially, making it a healthier option.
Dr Gulam says consumers generally feel more confident about consuming organic chicken because no antibiotics or medicaments are used in the rearing of the poultry.
“Basically, in organic chicken, farmers remove all the hardcore chemicals which are commonly used in poultry farming so consumers have no fear of allergies or antibiotic resistance. What gets into the chicken are things like pure corn, maize or rice.”
And by removing all these “hardcore” chemicals from poultry farming, one can achieve a very high level of safety.
However, he adds that consumers should be mindful of whether a product labelled organic is really organic in the true sense of the word, especially since many brands today place labels like “antibioticfree” on their meat products.
It helps to pay attention to their certification and have some knowledge of what processes should rightly be in place for organic poultry farming.
Malaysia has one of the highest rates of poultry consumption in the world, with a yearly consumption of 46.6kg per person, says Wesley Tan, group executive director of Aqina Group of Companies, whose farms produce the halal-certified Aqina Organic Kampung Chicken.
“Kampung chicken is lean meat. Our chicken, for example, has 30 per cent less fat than normal chicken and is rich in Omega 3,” says Tan.
Tan adds that it takes twice as much time to produce their chicken compared to conventional broiler chicken as they believe in doing it the traditional way — by nurturing the chickens organically and slowly over a period of 70 days to reach its optimal size, without using any growth hormones or antibiotics.
The company has been awarded two accreditations for its approach and work in organic poultry farming: Malaysia Organic Animal Production (MyOrganic), and Malaysia Good Agriculture Practice (MyGAP) by the Department of Veterinary Services.
Slow-growing chickens are birds which can take twice as long to reach market
In organic chicken, farmers remove all the hardcore chemicals which are commonly used in poultry farming so consumers have no fear of allergies or antibiotic resistance.
Dr Gulam Shah Faizal Din
weight because they do not convert feed to muscle as quickly.
The chickens at Aqina farms are fed on a diet of soy, corn, and wheat and supplemented with probiotic enzymes extracted from fermented MD2 pineapples.
These natural probiotic enzymes ensure that the chickens can efficiently absorb nutrients into their bloodstream and have better immunity. All these, coupled with the fact that the chickens are raised without antibiotics and growth hormones, resultin a healthier end product for the consumer.