» How does Perdue raise its poultry?
» What does Perdue do to protect the health of its flocks?
» What makes your chickens so meaty and how do they grow so quickly?
» What does Perdue feed its poultry?
» Why are PERDUE® chickens yellow?
» What is Perdue doing to protect the environment?

How does Perdue raise its poultry? 

All of our birds are raised on local farms by independent producers under contract with Perdue. Perdue delivers day-old chicks to the farms and provides feed, veterinary care and advice to our producers. Producers, in turn, are responsible for providing housing that meets Perdue's standards for poultry welfare and biosecurity and for caring for the birds on a daily basis.

Birds are grown in temperature-controlled houses, protected from the elements, predators and disease. Our poultry are not raised in cages and are free to move about with access to food and water. Our lighting and ventilation programs maximize bird comfort and minimize stress, creating an ideal environment for growing healthy birds.

Flocks are closely monitored and carefully tended to ensure their health, comfort and well-being. Our flock supervisors, veterinarians and poultry welfare officers - backed by an advanced team of scientists and laboratory technicians working with the industry's leading research and analytical equipment - assist our producers. They ensure adherence to our strict standards for food safety, bird health, poultry welfare and environmental stewardship.

We do not use antibiotics for growth promotion in our chickens, and we've never used hormones or steroids.

Learn more about Perdue's Poultry Welfare Program
Learn more about Perdue's Environmental Stewardship
Learn more about Perdue and Antibiotics

What does Perdue do to protect the health of its flocks? 

Perdue has strict biosecurity "best practices" covering every aspect of live production. That, coupled with the protection offered by the modern poultry house, minimizes the risk of disease infecting one of our flocks.

Beyond that, our flock monitoring system ensures the detection of any disease affecting the birds' health. Recognizing current concerns about Avian Influenza (or "bird flu"), Perdue has expanded that program to include a 100% flock testing policy, so that every flock must test free of bird flu before it can leave the farm.

Our many quality and food safety checks - along with USDA inspectors in every plant - ensure that PERDUE® products are safe to eat and meet our high standards of quality.

Learn more about Avian Influenza

What makes your chickens so meaty and how do they grow so quickly? 

Our meatier chickens are the result of an all-natural process of selective breeding. Perdue Farms has never used hormones or steroids and we do not use antibiotics for growth promotion.

For more than 30 years, Perdue Farms has been the only poultry company with a proprietary breed of chicken. Over the years, our company was able to develop a better chicken, improving upon the commercial breeds used by other poultry companies.

Though the PERDUE® chicken is famous for its broader breast and higher meat-to-bone ratio, it is also bred for vigor and resistance to disease. Company geneticists continue to carefully pedigree "grand parent" that exhibit desirable traits for our breeder program.

Those genetic characteristics, coupled with improvements in nutrition and housing, enable our broilers to reach processing weight in about six weeks.

Our company nutritionists develop feed formulations specific to our breed and matched to each stage of the bird's development. Our feeds are manufactured from all-natural ingredients.

Enclosed, temperature-controlled houses provide optimal growing conditions, protecting birds from temperature extremes, disease and stress while providing constant access to feed and water.

Learn more about Perdue's Poultry Welfare Program

What does Perdue feed its poultry? 

Perdue Farms purchases grain from local farmers and we manufacture our own poultry feeds from all-natural ingredients, free of pesticides and carefully blended to meet the nutritional requirements of our birds at every growth stage.

We blend our feeds from all natural grain products - including yellow corn and soybean meal - and vitamins and mineral supplements.

Why are PERDUE® chickens yellow? 

All breeds of chicken grown in the United States naturally have yellow skin, but it must be maintained through a healthy diet and careful handling. The natural ingredients in our feeds, including yellow corn and marigolds, help our chickens maintain their natural yellow skin color. The golden yellow skin is a further assurance that PERDUE® chickens are healthy and raised with care.

What is Perdue doing to protect the environment? 

Perdue Farms leads the industry in addressing the full range of environmental challenges related to animal agriculture and food processing, investing millions of dollars in research, new technology, equipment upgrades and awareness and education.

Our environmental accomplishments and initiatives include:

• Perdue lead the industry in developing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed by the State of Delaware of and the major poultry companies operating in the state. The MOU outlined what the poultry industry would voluntarily do to protect Delaware's natural resources and assist family farmers. Specific actions taken included developing alternative uses for surplus poultry, relocating surplus poultry litter from nutrient-rich areas to reduce run-off, changing feed formulations to reduce the amount of phosphorus in poultry litter and producer education.
• Perdue became the first poultry company to effectively implement a large-scale alternative use for poultry litter through Perdue AgriRecycle. Through an initial investment of $12 million, Perdue built a first-of-its-kind plant to convert poultry litter into pasteurized organic fertilizer products through an environmentally friendly process.
• Perdue partnered with the State of Delaware and environmental groups to implement a study to assess the results of nutrient management programs.
• The Chesapeake Bay Clean BaysInitiative is an historic agreement between Perdue and the EPA. The Clean Bays Initiative established a program that will minimize the environmental impact of poultry farms on the Chesapeake Bay and coastal bays around the Delmarva Peninsula.
• Perdue is working with the largest farms that supply our chickens to evaluate how they are controlling runoff and addressing litter disposal, and monitor compliance with nutrient management regulations.
• Information gathered from this pilot program will be used to develop a company-wide environmental management program for all contract farms throughout the company in 2008.
• The Environmental Management System, first piloted at our Salisbury plant, is being expanded to other facilities. Under the EMS, each facility sets annual environmental goals, such as reducing working use, reducing environmental loading, or increasing recycling.
• All Perdue facilities have set target water use goals, as appropriate for the products produced and food safety requirements. One pilot program, the Shore Water Conservation Initiative, has resulted in average savings of 2 million gallons of water per week per plant.
• To reduce landfill waste, Perdue replaced cardboard totes used to transfer raw materials between our plants with reusable plastic totes.
• Approximately 50% of corrugated materials used in our processes are recyclable.
• Our criteria for suppliers includes an environmental responsibility component to encourage environmental stewardship..
• We've successfully implemented of pilot energy conservation programs at our Milford and Georgetown plants that demonstrate ways that we can continue to reduce our energy use. In Milford, we optimized our compressed air system by installing a new variable speed air compressor and network control system, reducing our electrical use by 52. In Georgetown, new energy efficient lights in the Distribution Center and certain areas of the reduced electrical usage and improved the work area with brighter, more natural illumination.
• Perdue recently formed an Environmental Stewardship Committee to assess our company's environmental footprint and identify ways to implement best-in-class sustainable practices.