Tegel Foods, New Zealand's leading poultry company, has announced that from today Tegel commences supply of chickens
grown with non GE crops used in their feed to the Auckland market.
This follows Tegel's announcement in August that it would be sourcing its soymeal from non GE crops. This decision was
made in response to research indicating that 75% of consumers would prefer Tegel to use non GE crops in its feed.
After many months of negotiations, Tegel reached an agreement with its American supplier, AG Processing Inc., one of the
largest co-operative soybean processing companies in the world, to source its soybeans from non GE crops.
AGP has established an Identity Preservation (IP) Programme to minimise cross contamination with GE soybeans. This new
supply process involves strict purity procedures going right back to the farm including ongoing testing and thorough
cleaning procedures during planting, harvesting, processing and transportation.
Tegel MD, Peter Lucas says "This year Tegel will purchase over 200,000 tonnes of crop based raw materials for its feed.
Where necessary, Tegel incurs substantial cost to ensure its suppliers source materials from non GE crops and use
identity preservation programmes to minimise cross contamination with GE materials".
Says Mr Lucas, "Tegel chickens have never been genetically engineered and now we use non GE crops in our feed too.
Consumers have made their wishes clear and we are very pleased to be able to give them what they want. It's been a long
road but well worth it to reach the point where consumers can enjoy the benefit of our efforts."
Tegel is introducing new product labelling to inform consumers that it uses non GE crops in its feed. The new labelling
also reminds consumers that Tegel does not use added hormones and that its chickens are barn raised.
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