September 22, 2011

Finland: Organic broiler suffers disease risk

Finnish food industry companies Atria, Saarioinen, and HK Ruokatalo are afraid of disease risk so they do not sell organic broiler.

According to EU regulations, organic broilers have to be able to go outside all year round but producers deem this condition as a risk to contract salmonella. According to Atria, there are bacteria and parasites in outdoor chicken farms. There is also a risk that the chickens are infected with salmonella by birds.

According to the Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, organic chickens do not have a higher risk of getting salmonella than factory farmed chickens because they may never go out in their lifetime, even though they are offered this possibility.