Welfare Statement

A Note on our Chicken Welfare and Food Safety 2020

For our customers we certify the following:

Over the past 25+ years, Jidori Chicken® has worked with many farmers both large and small. Along the way we learned a thing or two. The honest part of our industry is that chickens raised for our consumption, will live a hard life when compared to animals not farmed for our consumption. But that doesn’t mean we won’t do our best to try to reduce their suffering as much as possible.  These practices include:

  1. A healthy diet
    1. No Antibiotics ever
    2. No meat by-products
    3. All vegetarian feed
    4. No added hormones
    5. Cage-free
  2. Fresh water
  3. As little human handling as possible
  4. An environment free of stress
    1. Access to outdoors
    2. Raised with natural light
    3. Increased floor space

 We also guarantee the following:

  1. Certified HACCP Program
  2. GMP third-party certified (SCS)
  3. USDA Federally inspected plant (P-4181)
  4. Traceability/Recall program

Although these parameters in a farm setting are still not ideal, we will continually strive to improve as we gain knowledge, awareness, and new protocols.

Since we are a small volume producer we work with family farms that like to do things slower with more care. We are not saying big producers do things wrong, we just believe things done smaller, simpler and slower have better quality, and also gives greater reverence toward the animals we raise that the big guy misses.  We see this reverence in our belief that all living beings are connected; even in the act of taking life, there is a connection. That is why we use hand slaughter by an actual person as opposed to the machine that big companies use. We also believe this is the purest, most natural, most intimate and honest way for taking a life. We do not employ a gas chamber to render the chickens unconscious that further removes this intimacy. We do it this way, because it matters.

Most of our farmers maintain QA protocols with the California Poultry Federation; which are also shared with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The CDFA regularly inspects the farms to insure QA protocols are being followed. Also, most of the farms we work with are GAP certified to step 3 for Organic and NON-GMO chicken. They will audit every 18 months.  We are audited for “GMPs” annually along with Organic certifications for Organic handling. Furthermore USDA samples our chickens weekly for salmonella among other food bacteria and tests for antibiotics annually so that we are in compliance with label claims.

Jidori® does work with some really small local farms that do not have official certificates or badges. This is because those certifications and the protocols associated come at a big cost that the small guy cannot always afford. But that doesn’t mean they are not doing things right. I do believe the next revolution in poultry farming will come from the smaller farmer; something akin to what Uber did to the taxi industry. This is why we always try to help our local small poultry farmer. 

Dennis Mao, 2020

* COVID - 19 -  We are a small family business with under 100 employees that implemented safety measures much earlier than required and were able to avoid any cases of the virus within our workplace. Moving forward we do not anticipate any work delays due to the virus and will continue to adhere to strict hygiene protocols that include distancing and donning PPE. 

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