Bell & Evans chicken

Bell & Evans
Fredericksburg, VA

“For years our Bell & Evans chickens have been raised without antibiotics, animal byproducts or animal fats. Unlike some others, our company strives to raise ALL of our chickens without the use of antibiotics and to demanding humane standards. Bell & Evans has had a Preharvest HACCP plan in place to certify this industry-leading performance.”
Bruno S. Schmalhofer, CEO, Letter to the New York Times, Feb. 14, 2002

http://www.keepantibioticsworking.com/new
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005

Pampered poultry

By Harold Brubaker
Inquirer Staff Writer

FREDERICKSBURG, Pa.
...
Three of the industry's major players - Bell & Evans, BC Natural Chicken, and College Hill Poultry - have plants here.
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Bell & Evans, which traces its roots to Bellmawr, Camden County, in the 1890s and employs nearly 1,200, is the largest. ... Three national customers - Whole Foods Market, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Panera Bread - are counting on him. They have been buying as much Bell & Evans chicken as they can get and are looking for more, even though it costs as much as 50 percent more than conventional chicken. ... When Panera chose Bell & Evans, it was not looking for a "natural" chicken, just a better-tasting chicken, said John Taylor, Panera's director of product development. "We started with taste, and this is what we came across," he said.
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Instead of looking for the cheapest available feed, Bell & Evans feeds its chickens a strict diet of corn, soybean meal, vitamins and minerals, Sechler said. That's more expensive - at retail, a natural whole chicken recently was selling for $1.99 a pound at Whole Foods, compared with $1.69 for conventional chicken at a nearby Acme - but Sechler thinks it gives the chicken consistently good flavor.

In another effort to improve the flavor of Bell & Evans chicken, the company installed a new system to chill the chickens using cold air after they are killed, instead of dunking them in cold water treated with chlorine.
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"Natural" - Whole Foods, Bell & Evans and others use the term for chickens that are given vegetarian feed and no antibiotics.

Organic(USDA) - These chickens eat organically grown feed and no antibiotics.

Free range - The birds have access to an outside pen for a portion of their lives.

Pastured - The chickens get up to 20 percent of their feed from pasture forage, typically living in movable pens.

SOURCES: National Chicken Council, American Pastured Poultry Producers' Association, Inquirer research.
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Contact staff writer Harold Brubaker at 215-854-4651 or hbrubaker@phillynews.com.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer
/business/12306473.htm
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