A chicken that is suitable for both egg
and meat production.
That allows for more animal welfare.
That's the idea behind the "dual-purpose chicken" project.
Just an idea if consumers won't accept the product.
The Social Lab working group as part of the project
deals with consumer acceptance.
That helps us connect husbandry and egg
and meat production with the consumer.
This is important to us because new concepts
need practical application.
We hope to receive some insight
into our project's future field applicability.
The Studentenwerk Hannover supports this crucial field test.
In its nine university cafeterias, male dual-purpose birds
were offered on the menu as half a roast chicken.
The event attracted great media interest.
How food is produced is a topic en vogue.
The cafeteria guest filled in questionnaires to evaluate the chicken.
Hundreds of answers were collected.
We wanted to know beforehand how the dual-purpose chicken
is received, and carried out a blind tasting.
3 kinds of chicken
3 test eaters
What the test eaters do not know:
The dual-purpose chicken is marked in pink,
the conventional broilers in turquoise,
and the male of the egg-laying line in yellow.
The evaluation includes flavour and consistency.
I like both pink and turquoise.
If I had to choose, I'd go for turquoise.
Turquoise has really tasted wonderful.
Turquoise and pink were my favourites, as well.
Still, I'd prefer pink.
The result in school grades:
The conventional broiler receives a B.
In hot pursuit, the dual-purpose chicken gets a B- .
The male of egg-laying line receives a C- .
I was surprised the conventional chicken came out best.
Because you expect you can taste a different.
But in the end it all comes down to what you are used.
The force of habit plays a major role.
Yes times are changing, and so do tastes:
Maybe the dual-purposed chicken will be
the favourite choice in a few years.
The new breeding concepts already makes a small contribution
to animal welfare in commercial farming.