Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have partnered with biotech firm PLANTON to prevent the culling of male chicks in its supply chain.
The retailer will implement PLANTON’s genetic analysis process to identify the gender of chickens before hatching.
Managing director corporate buying at Aldi Süd, Simon Gelzer, commented, "As one of the largest dealers for chicken eggs, the topic is of particular importance to us.
"With PLANTON we have a partner at our side with whom we can promote and implement innovative solutions to put an end to chick killing in our supply chains."
The Technology
PLANTON uses a procedure called PLANTEGG, which allows gender identification on the ninth day of incubation.
The company is working on improving the technology further to make the process earlier than nine days.
Prof Dr Small, managing director of PLANTON, added, "We are currently working flat out to further develop the technology that is already suitable for series production, in order to create the appropriate capacities and later be able to make our process available to other market participants."
Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been sourcing organic eggs from the ‘Bruderhahn’ project since 2017.
The project ensures that rooster siblings of egg-laying hens are raised as broilers and treated in the same way as hens.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
