The Guardian view on food standards: the cost of competition | Editorial

Look away now: an investigation into one food processor might put you off your next chicken mealFor almost every meat eater, chicken is the great standby. Every day, more than 2 million birds are consumed: spiced up as drumsticks or curry-sauced thighs or succulently ham-wrapped breasts. But there is perhaps no other area of food production where what we eat has become so distant from what happens to it on the way to the plate. It is not a process for the faint-hearted: and as an investigation by the Guardian and ITV has found, it can also break the law.Undercover reporters who took jobs with 2 Sisters Food Group (2SFG) found workers at the company's processing plant in West Bromwich packing chicken pieces that had been picked up off the floor, mixing fresh with less-fresh meat and fiddling key information about slaughter dates in a way that might have meant customers were misled about use-by dates. It ought to shame the industry. But on past evidence, it is hard to believe that it will. Continue reading...