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* Chicken safety champion Sir Colin Spedding is adamant that standards need not mean soaring costs as Helen Gregory reports
Sir Colin Spedding is, by his own admission, an "old fashioned, public service guy". Years of committee work and hours spent on panels in Whitehall have given him a studious and sombre air. But his dark rimmed glasses and old fashioned looks belie a career spent one step ahead. Sir Colin set up a farm animal welfare group in the 1980s and the first organic accreditation body - the UK Register of Organic Food Standards - which spawned groups such as the Soil Association.
A small, wiry man still full of energy at 75 years old, Sir Colin is at home in the darkened recesses of the Farmers' Club in Whitehall and, although he is no farmer, it is a position more than earned by a lifetime's work with animals and plants.
One of his main roles now is as chairman of Assured Chicken Production - a company set up to raise quality standards in the poultry industry and reassure consumers of the safety of British chicken.
The initiative began two years ago when poultry producers and retailers began talking about raising standards - far ahead of the Competition Commission's recommendation that suppliers and stores should work more closely together.
Sir Colin came on board last year and believes his impartiality and pragmatism prompted the invitation to join.
"It was widely known I am completely independent. I'm not too afraid to criticise. I think my role in life is to bring people together: as chair of the National Equine Forum I bring together 85 bodies, but I've never been on a horse."
Assured chicken products are covered by the British Farm Standard mark - the little red tractor logo - which was established by the NFU last year with the reassuring words `For food you can trust', and sticky labelled on home-grown produce.
Chicken farmers in the scheme which cover nearly 90% of the 15 million chickens eaten every week - use no antibiotic growth promoters, recognise clear guidance on stocking density and guarantee total traceability of the life of the bird.
All processors are independently audited so that retailers do not...