Brakes Group Uk Takes Foie Gras Off The Menu
For Immediate Release:
19 July 2013
Contact:
Ben Williamson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]
London – Brakes Group UK, one of the leading foodservice providers to the catering industry, has confirmed that it will no longer offer foie gras once its remaining stock is gone after learning from PETA about the inhumane treatment of ducks and geese raised and killed for foie gras.
PETA contacted Brakes Group UK after receiving complaints that the catering and ingredients giant was offering a “foie gras and duck liver pâté”. PETA has now been assured that this product – of which only minimal stock remains – has been discontinued.
“Brakes Group UK has told PETA that it will remove foie gras, the grotesquely enlarged livers of force-fed ducks and geese, from the list of products it offers”, says PETA UK Associate Director Mimi Bekhechi. “Fortnum & Mason CEO Ewan Venters might note that his former employers – Sainsbury’s, Selfridges and now Brakes – have all rejected foie gras sales, while Fortnum & Mason is shamefully still selling this vile foodstuff.”
To create foie gras, metal pipes are forced down birds’ throats, and huge amounts of grain and fat are pumped into their stomachs several times a day. Their livers become diseased as they swell to up to 10 times their normal size, and the pipes often puncture their throats – frequently causing them to bleed to death. Foie gras production is banned in the UK and 16 other countries.
In 2012, Compass Group UK & Ireland confirmed that it had removed foie gras following talks with PETA as well as an online campaign in which PETA supporters appealed to the UK’s largest catering company to ditch the vile product. Wimbledon, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the BRIT Awards, Lord’s Cricket Ground, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Harvey Nichols and the restaurants in both Houses of Parliament have also all pledged not to serve or sell foie gras, and Prince Charles does not allow it on Royal menus. Respected chef Albert Roux has said of foie gras, “It’s the same as cigarettes, it should carry a health warning so that people know what’s been done to the animal”. He refuses to serve it in any of his restaurants.
High-profile people who are backing PETA’s anti–foie gras campaign include Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet, Ricky Gervais, Zac Goldsmith MP, Dame Vera Lynn and Sir Roger Moore, who narrated PETA’s video exposé of foie gras production.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.
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