All New Zealand produced poultry meat and eggs are hormone free. The use of growth hormones has been banned in New Zealand for more than 30 years and chicken is the only meat routinely tested for the presence of hormones. None has ever been found.

Importing raw poultry is also banned to help protect our unique disease free status so consumers can be certain that if they are eating raw poultry products in this country they are hormone free. The fact this hormone free status is on product labels is simply a statement of industry policy.

The accusation of growth hormone use is commonly aimed at the industry, probably because of the perceived fast growth of chicken. The accusation is a myth.

Rapid growth comes from selective breeding for certain characteristics, improved animal management and better quality feeds. Just as the sheep and beef industries breed for 100 day lambs of specific target weights or cattle beasts that produce more meat so does our industry. The dairy and wool industries also breed for characteristics they want to produce more milk or finer fleeces.

All raw or frozen poultry products you buy in New Zealand were produced here. Raw poultry imports are currently banned in New Zealand to protect our disease free status.

New Zealand domestic flocks are completely free of Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD), Avian Influenza (bird flu), and Newcastle’s Disease – infections which routinely cause significant harm to flocks in overseas markets.

Raw imports of poultry meat also have the potential to pass infections into our unique and highly endangered native bird flocks.
There are limited, highly regulated and monitored imports of processed, canned chicken products sourced mainly from South East Asia or Indonesia.

As imported raw poultry could carry these diseases, it is not currently imported into New Zealand, to protect our unique disease -free status. Raw imported poultry meat could also carry diseases which may pose a risk to native birds, so it is important to minimise this risk to help protect our native avian fauna.

No. Faster growth characteristics are the product of a number of factors including selective, natural breeding.

Growth promoters have been banned in New Zealand for decades.

As well as selective breeding for size and fast growth we have seen improvements in feed quality and feed management – for example there are four different feeding regimes for birds at different stages of their growth - research into nutritional requirements, improved animal husbandry and housing, and improvements in health care to prevent disease or quickly return ill birds to good health while preventing the spread of infections to other birds in the flock.

Male birds also grow faster than female birds and birds produced from larger eggs also tend to be larger. The environment in the growing sheds – such as ventilation and light - is also controlled to assist in optimising growth.

Around 84 million birds are processed for domestic consumption each year or around 33kg per person per year. New Zealand consumers eat more chicken than any other meat protein source.

Good hygiene and appropriate food handling is always advisable with any food. Following the four C’s Cook, Cover, Clean and Chill – will help minimise the risk of campylobacter infection and there is good advice in our Food Safety page - http://www.pianz.org.nz/recent-posts/food-safety

Minimising campylobacter levels on chicken has been focus for our industry in the past few years and a joint programme with the NZFSA has brought outstanding success.

That programme looked at all aspects of our industry – from the farm to the plate – and introduced improvements across the industry that have seen campy detection rates drop by 25% between 2007 and 2010.

This programme was part of a much wider, ongoing focus on reducing campylobacter infections by the NZFSA with reported infections across all possible infection sources in New Zealand dropping by 43% between 2007 and 2011.

Lysteriosis is relatively uncommon in New Zealand with the lysteria monocytogenes bacteria responsible for around 20-25 reported cases per year.

Certain foods – chilled products, those with a long shelf-life or ready-to-eat foods consumed without additional cooking – tend to be more prone to causing lysteriosis.

Cooking food at 70 degrees celsius or above for at least one minute will kill the bacteria.

There is a school of thought suggesting all poultry meat sold to consumers should be frozen as freezing can kill some potentially harmful organisms or stop their multiplication.

But more than 79% of all products sold in New Zealand are fresh poultry, not frozen and that tells us what our consumers prefer.
Freezing does not guarantee killing all potentially harmful organisms, although it does stop them multiplying.

On thawing, if the product is not hygienically handled, then the potential for bacteria to multiply and cause harm remains.

Our focus as an industry remains on ensuring safe, fresh products for our consumers. We support NZFSA and other safe food handling initiatives to ensure our products are handled in a way that reduces the possibility of the problems that can be caused by the presence of harmful bacteria.

The New Zealand poultry industry has the best animal health status in the world. We are free of the three major exotic poultry diseases, Avian Influenza (Bird Flu), Infectious Bursal Disease and New Castle’s Disease. No other countries in the world can make that claim. In fact, fresh poultry is not imported into New Zealand in order to protect our unique disease-free status. We know that once a disease enters the poultry population, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to regain freedom from that disease.

The old proverb says “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”. That is why the industry has strict biosecurity standards. An effective farm biosecurity programme requires minimal contact with unnecessary persons, vehicles and other animals as these can all carry diseases. To protect the health of their flocks, all poultry farmers control who comes in contact with their birds. It’s not impossible to visit a poultry farm - all it takes is planning and talking to the farmer before you visit.