SOME Guangzhou people are inspecting the living conditions of chickens on farms before buying them, the Yangcheng Evening News reports.

With the saying, "no chicken, no pleasure " and " no chicken, no banquet," city residents have long been enthusiastic about chicken.

However, more people are becoming increasingly critical about the quality of the chicken they eat with regard to their personal health.

The newspaper says some are even taking pains to study chicken pedigrees to see whether the chicken lines are healthy, but it does not elaborate.

A Mrs. Liao and her colleagues often go to the countryside to inspect and select chickens. Mrs. Liao is a doctor and very strict with food. People can be harmed by eating chickens which have been matured quickly with feedstuff containing hormones, antibiotics and coloring, she says.

Mrs. Liao and her colleagues have been frequently visiting a chicken feeding center in Baiyun District at weekends. They prefer to buy free-range chickens which have been raised under natural conditions.

Mr. Xie, the owner of the center, says guests from the city and other places in the Pearl River Delta visit the center almost every day. After taking advice from some customers, he opened a store in Tongfu Road Central in Haizhu Distric and sold more than 200 chickens during the Mid-Autumn Festival. He is looking to open another store in Dongchuan Road.

When chickens raised on feed containing hormones were examined, clusters of lymph nodes were found in their gullets, Mrs. Liao said. Healthy chickens apparently had smaller or almost no lymph nodes.

 
Editor: Wings