Chickens! Sainsbury is given a roasting by Jamie

As the face of Sainsbury's, Jamie Oliver earns more than £1million a year in return for boosting its sales by a reported £1billion.

But bosses are unlikely to be delighted by the celebrity chef's latest comments about them.

In an astonishing attack, he said it was "shocking" that the store refused to attend a TV debate on the practice of battery-farming eggs and chickens.

Oliver, 32, hosted a filmed dinner in which food producers were served chicken - then shown clips of the birds being slaughtered and suffering during intensive farming.

Officials from a range of supermarkets were invited including Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons, but only Waitrose and Co-op turned up.

Oliver said of Sainsbury's: "It is shocking that the people I work for did not turn up on the day. I do not know why.

"The fact your PR department has not even got the confidence to turn up and talk about what you do for the millions of people who come through your doors each week. . . of course the supermarkets should have turned up. How dare they not? I was really upset."

Oliver wanted to question food manufacturers about intensive farming methods which mean farmers earn as little as 3p per chicken.

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His programme, Jamie's Fowl Dinners, which will be broadcast on Friday on Channel 4, aims to highlight the poor conditions in which chickens and eggs are produced.

He said he had booked Sainsbury's representatives to appear at the dinner but they failed to show up.

He added: "We phoned on the day and said, 'Can you not send anyone, even the poultry buyer?' And no one came."

But the supermarket said last night: "We never said we were going to turn up."

Judith Batchelar, director of Sainsbury's brand, was instead filmed visiting Oliver's Essex farm in a different section of the show, while the chef was taken on a tour of one of the company's chicken suppliers.

The chain, which recruited Oliver for its adverts in 2000, yesterday refused to confirm whether it will be renewing his contract in April.

A spokesman said: "We felt we had played our part in the programme and had already spent half a day with him explaining our policies. We never accepted the invite for the dinner."

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During the programme, Oliver aims to campaign for better standards for farmers and increased welfare for the birds.

He said: "The thing that shocked me most was that farmers have to sell something like 100 chickens to make £3 or £4. To me that is outrageous.

"We should all be thinking why something is so cheap rather than why others seem so expensive. I am not asking people to pay three times as much, just what they can afford.

"I believe the conditions under which standard eggs and chickens are reared are morally wrong. If no changes are made now we may not have an industry left."

He highlighted RSPCA Freedom Food-labelled chicken - which requires a minimum standard of breeding conditions for birds - as an example of good practice.

Tesco said: "We take animal welfare extremely seriously. Many of our customers are on a tight budget and rely on us to provide affordable good quality food."

Morrisons said: "We are currently working with suppliers to further extend our range of Freedom Food poultry products."

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