The labels “organic”and “free-range” have become more and more popular on agricultural and animal food products. “Organic” emphasizes much on the avoidance of synthetic chemicals and food sources for animals, meanwhile demand some access to the outdoors. But “free-range” states only the fact that animals have the ability to access the outdoors.
The difference in Raising Standards
- 1. The organic chicken is fed under the standard condition without synthetic chemicals, and do not use fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics, and so on. In addition to above standards, the organic chicken must be allowed access to pasture during the raising process, including access to the outside, direct sunlight, fresh air and freedom of movement.
- The free-range chicken is solely referred to access to the outside during raising, but the daily time required and the size of outdoor space is not regulated.
- Under the regulatory aspect, all organic chickens are raised under free-range conditions. However, free-range chicken does not necessarily qualify with the organic condition.
- Different from the organic and free-range chicken which are allowed access to outdoors, conventionally raised chicken is constrained living in much closer and smaller space, such as cage or buildings with a large number of other chickens. The former is in conformity with ethical consideration, while the latter does not take this into consideration.
The difference in Nutrition and Taste
- “Organic” and “free-range” address only the production process of the food, but not its final quality or nutritional value. It is found that organic foods have only small nutritional differences from conventionally raised food.
- For the taste, research indicated that people are tending to eat conventionally raised chicken than organic and free-range chicken, while the research of taste preferences between organic and free-range chicken remains extremely limited at the moment.
There are above-mentioned differences between organic and free-range chicken, hoping which will provide some instruction for you when choosing the chicken foods. If you are interested in the chicken eggs processing business, please contact us.
