KOCHI: Keralites can now relish safe barcoded chicken with the Venad Poultry Farmers Producers Company (PFPC), a firm under the Kerala Agriculture University, launching the sale of live ‘Venad signature chicken’ through its franchises.
Consumers can scan the barcode attached to the live chicken through a mobile app which will provide details regarding the chicken, including the feed, other supplements like medicines, if any, given to the chicken, apart from the age of the chicken and details of the farm.
The Central Government-funded project supported by NABARD is being implemented as part of the efforts to make safe chicken readily available. The project ensures that the chicken being sold through the franchises is reared in selected farms under farmer producer organisations (FPO) by giving organic vegetarian diet and without administering antibiotics, steroids or hormones. This assumes significance considering the fact that vegetarian diet-fed chicken is gaining popularity in the burgeoning world of organic food.
Dr K Chandraprasad, chairman of Venad PFPC, said the first modern franchise unit was launched at Kottiyam in Kollam and 15 such units will be set up in the state soon with the support of NABARD. The broiler chicken for the sales will be reared in farms owned by farmers who register under the Venad PFPC. Only the company-approved veg diet will be allowed and in case of any epidemic outbreaks, antibiotics can be administered to the chicken with the permission of experts from the company. But such chicken will be taken for sale only after the withdrawal period of the medication, he said.
According to officials, the state requires 4-4.5 lakh birds a day for food. There are around 100 farmer-producer companies (FPCs) in the agriculture sector, including one FPC in the animal husbandry sector. As ‘Venad signature chicken’ is the registered brand of Venad PFPC, the others can’t sell the chicken under the same brand name. But other FPCs can set up similar ventures with the approval of the firm.