Moy Park roast-in-bag chickens to come in thermoformed bags

Moy Park has extended its pre-prepared range with the launch of a new roast-in-bag chicken line.

The ‘shelf to oven’ whole chickens, launching in Northern Ireland this month (rsp: £5.00) as part of Moy Park’s ‘Good Kitchen’ range, are available in two varieties - ‘Extra Tasty’ and ‘Garlic & Herb’.

The company claimed the new products will stand out from other roast-in-bag chickens because they are packaged in printed thermoformed bags without a tray.

“The shape of the bag means the juice is retained and is perfect as gravy. In addition the product does not stick to the bag,” said a spokeswoman.

Earlier this week, Moy Park announced the launch of a new high-spec poultry development house which it claims will deliver “significant improvements” in poultry rearing.

Located near the processor’s headquarters in Co. Down, the 18,500 square feet development house features windows providing natural light, enhanced biosecurity and biomass heating. It is split into 36 individual pens, holding 500 birds each.

The company said this “precision controlled” environment would help it better monitor bird welfare, feed conversion and environmental impacts to provide “optimum conditions” for its chickens.

The new facility is part of Moy Park’s broiler expansion plan in the UK, with plans to construct 250 new poultry houses by the end of 2015.