Abel & Cole launches soy-free grown chicken

British organic food company Abel and Cole is launching its first free range chicken that has been reared using soy-free feed.

Abel & Cole has teamed up with Devon chicken producer Peter Coleman, an expert in animal nutrition. He was inspired to create a soy free feed after visiting the Amazon, wherein deforestation has been mounting due to increasing soy planting in the area.

Concern is increasing that widespread use of soy has been deforest a standard ingredient in chicken feed, could be contributing to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

Coleman explained that a chicken requires ''protein to build up its vital amino acids, the building blocks of life, particularly during its first three weeks. Protein in chicken feed comes mainly in the form of soya."

Coleman was contacted by one of Abel & Cole's product hunters, Martin Humphreys who said that the idea of offering our customers''an ethical, but affordable option when it came to chicken, so were looking into the best possible free-range birds reared in Britain."

The organic chicken uses bean, peas, rape, sunflower and wheat. Coleman has now converted all of the chickens on his farm to the soy free feed.

Humphreys said their organic chicken is the best alternative from both price, ethical standpoint and taste.