The online resource, Chicken Check In, has been updated to provide consumers and other visitors with a deeper look at the broiler industry, including recipes, safe handling and preparation tips and sustainability innovations.
“People want to know more about how their food is raised and how it gets from farm to table. Before Chicken Check In, there really weren’t any resources that provided a transparent look at the process,” Tom Super, the National Chicken Council’s senior vice president of communications, said.
“The site is largely focused on sustainability, animal welfare and nutrition. Those are the three areas where we get the most questions from consumers.”
Chicken Check In was first launched by the National Chicken Council in 2015 and features resources to help consumers, journalists and others to learn about the broiler industry
Education, transparency needed
A 2019 National Chicken Council survey revealed that environmental impact is just as important to consumers as animal welfare when it comes to purchasing decisions. In addition, nearly half of respondents indicated they would eat more chicken if they learned about the efforts chicken production has made to become more sustainable in response to consumer demand.
There is also a growing desire for transparency in food production among consumers. They now want to understand the entire process from farm to fork.
“Younger consumers don’t want to be educated, per se. They want to be provided information, so they can make up their own mind, according to our focus groups. That’s what we set out to do with Chicken Check In,” explained Super.
Resource refresh
Chicken Check In recently underwent a total refresh to make it more user-friendly, as well as easier to view on mobile phones and tablets.
“When I first started at the National Chicken Council, we would bring bloggers, influencers and journalists on tours of poultry farms, hatcheries and processing plants to educate them about the industry. We wanted to find a way to bring the farm online to reach more people,” Super said.
“We wanted to the provide the information in a very visual way, so Chicken Check In also includes infographics, pictures and a 360-degree video tour of a hatchery, a chicken house and a processing plant. A lot of the information is designed to be printable for convenience.”
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