TV chef's fury as Tesco sells its chickens for just £1.99

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The supermarket giant cut the price of a "standard" chicken by 60 per cent and claims it is helping those on a tight budget.

But Fearnley-Whittingstall said he was "surprised" at the chain's decision which he claimed contradicted earlier statements from Tesco.

The chef has helped sales of freerange birds soar with his Channel 4 programme Hugh's Chicken Run, which showed how the country's 800 million broiler chickens live cramped and painful lives.

"I'm very surprised [at Tesco] because everybody is selling out of free-range chicken," he said. "To launch a £1.99 chicken is in direct contradiction to a statement [the chain's chief executive] Sir Terry Leahy made last summer when he said he didn't want to get into a food price war on chicken."

Tesco says it has doubled its order for higher-welfare birds but critics claim its decision to sell £1.99 chickens will heap financial pressure on the poultry industry.

They say it will make it harder to improve the welfare of factory-farmed chickens.

Animal welfare group, Compassion in World Farming said it was "depressing" following weeks of publicity about the welfare of broiler chickens fuelled by Fearnley-Whittingstall's programme.

Dr Lesley Lambert, the CIWF's director of research and education, said: "£1.99 doesn't reflect the real price of producing a chicken. At the moment, farmers make only 2p per chicken, so this will push them to the limit." She added that Tesco should be cutting the price of its higher-welfare-chicken rather than its bottomofthe-range birds.

The chain responded it was helping shoppers squeezed by mortgage worries, energy price rises and inflation.

A Tesco spokesman said: "We have been working hard for a while to increase the amount of higher-welfare chicken we sell and the recent debate in the media about chickens has helped raise awareness of the choice available.

"But our investment in premium chicken should not be seen as a move away from providing more affordable options. No one should feel guilty for buying a chicken just because it is good value."