February 8, 2007

Worldwide poultry consumption unlikely to be affected by bird flu

Only one in ten consumers worldwide said they would eat less poultry as a result of the threat of bird flu.

The results were obtained from an online survey conducted by The Nielsen Company on 25,000 respondents in 45 countries.

However, 78 percent of them believe bird flu would have a negative impact on the economy and half of them would think twice about traveling to bird flu infected countries. 

About 60 percent of those surveyed said they were concerned about food safety.

Eleni Nicholas, Group MD for ACNielsen UK and Ireland said bird flu impact on poultry consumption appears to be minimal, probably due to the educational messages about food safety being issued by the media.

The uncooked poultry market in the UK is growing at 2.6 percent on-year. During the last UK bird flu scare last year, chicken sales growth slowed by 10 percent at first, but recovered within months.