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Firm Focus, Mitchells Quality Scottish Chicken: the healthy choice
The health benefits associated with eating more white meat and lowering our fat intake have been well-documented in recent years and this has had a knock-on effect on the Scottish chicken industry as a whole.
Joseph Mitchell (Letham) Ltd, the Angus-based processing company with over 100 years' experience in the trade, is an industry-leader in providing fresh chicken products to the catering and hospitality industry across the UK.
'Our clients expect the best and we provide that through a number of means,' says Mike Mitchell, Managing Director. 'We recently completed a multi-million-pound 100,000sq ft approved processed facility on our site and that's taken us to the next stage in production quantities and quality, and we are now processing around 50,000 chickens a day.'
Together with the company's 160 staff, Mike and his brothers Joseph and Stephen are committed to providing full traceability information for all their clients, and have introduced a bar code system which enables each customer's order to be tracked along its route from farm to fork: 'Every box produced is identified by a unique 20-digit barcode providing the ultimate in traceability,' continues Mike. 'All our chickens are from a Scottish hatchery and we are proud to guarantee that our products are of the highest quality.'
Unlike some foreign processors who have been criticised for including unnecessary additives and water in their chicken, Mitchells are also proud of the fact that absolutely nothing is added to their comprehensive range of chicken products; so much so, in fact, that they invite and welcome on-site visits by clients, buyers, chefs and other interested parties, to witness the process from slaughter to packaging.
'From a chef's perspective, if they are keen to see how it's all put together and how we manage our slaughtering, quality control, packaging and delivery services, we can take them on a full tour of our facility, allowing them access to every area so they can witness first-hand the freshness of our chicken as it leaves the factory within hours of being slaughtered.
Indeed, Braehead Foods, the Kilmarnock-based purveyor of game and speciality produce, recently organised such a site tour with several chefs from both Scotland and England.
'Our 'open-door' policy encourages these tours and allows our customers to leave the factory with confidence in their products,' adds Joseph.
Using their expertise in providing chicken for the Chinese and Indian catering markets, including their increasingly widespread adoption of halal preparation procedures, Mitchells are eager to demonstrate their commitment to widening the scope for servicing different markets in Scotland. In January last year, the company received an unexpected visit from Dr. Mohammed Akram from the Glasgow Board of Mosques, accompanied by Professor Dr. Mohammad Bashir Ilyas from the University of Agriculture in Faisalabab, Pakistan.
Dr. Akram inspected the halal slaughter facilities and enjoyed a tour of the factory.
'I am very much on board with the Mitchells,' he said. 'They must be commended by the Muslim community for providing such high standard halal processing facilities together with impeccable hygiene and advanced staff skills. I have never seen such a hygienically sound and efficient process.'
Indeed, the Mitchell brothers are keen to build on their current success within the halal marketplace:
'We currently process a large proportion of our chicken products under halal conditions and we are looking into the prospect of increasing that in the near future,' says Mike. 'Over the next few months we are hoping to build on our existing output and the long-term plan is to continue extending our halal production to cover an increasing number of products in our factory.'
And that's no small achievement for an independent Angus company that started out selling poultry door-to-door from a horse and cart some one hundred years ago.
Joseph Mitchell (Letham) Ltd
Tel: 01307 818 220
Web: www.mitchellschickens.com
This article has been edited from the original version. To read it in full, see Catering in Scotland magazine, February/March 2006. Click on the Media Pack icon on this website and select 'subscribe'.
