Bell & Evans sources only U.S. grown grain, whenever possible.  If we come up short, we may buy a limited amount from Canada or Argentina.

We do not Import Organic Grains from China.   With the cost of Organic grain being more than twice the cost of conventional, many dishonest operators have entered the business.

Bell & Evans non Organic Certified chicken products.

I would be very happy to produce all of our chickens & turkeys without using GMO grain.  At this time it is not possible for Bell & Evans to do that because of the following reasons:

• There is only a small percentage of non GMO grain producers left in the U.S.
• The Ethanol demand continues to take acres away from Organic and non GMO grain production.
• There is no U.S.D.A. or Certified enforcement for non GMO grain production or handling.
• As soon as we can find a reliable, honest source of non GMO grain, we will be very happy to deliver.
• I believe when we sell a product or a service to a customer, we need to deliver what they thought they bought.

We will double our efforts on procuring non GMO grain and will report again in the near future on the situation.

No Bell & Evans diets contain Hexane processed soybeans.

At Bell & Evans we just started a new healthcare program for our team.  $0 Deductible, $0 Co-pay  and $0 Co-insurance.  We have taken away most financial issues for needed medical care.

Why are you allowing suppliers to feed their animals Soybean or Canola meal that was processed using the Hexane Slovent Extraction Process?  Simply because it is the cheaper method is not a good reason.  Hexane ends up in the feed, the vegetable oil, in the water and the air.  We are in 2013 there are lots of great alternative ways to process beans.

Please investigate what Hexane really is!

Hexane extraction soybean processing was studied and turned down in Pennsylvania several times over the last 40 years. This old short cut is dangerous technology for producing soybean meal and consumer groups agree this meal should not be consumed by humans or animals, any more than the “junk” called DDGS which is the by-product of the Ethanol industry. Hexane is a chemical by-product of the oil industry that is explosive, smells like model airplane glue and is very dangerous, in fact it is considered a Hazardous Air Pollutant by the EPA. In my opinion, products derived from Hexane extraction or Ethanol by-product should be considered inhumane for humans or animals to consume.

Over 25 years ago, I realized what Hexane extraction soybean meal was and I quit using this junk in our Bell & Evans chicken diets as soon as possible. We have a fast growing soybean processing industry in PA using extruders and presses without chemicals. This industry produces both great quality consumer and great quality animal grade products.

At Bell & Evans we produce over 50,000,000 happy, healthy chickens each year using over 60,000 tons of extruded and expeller pressed soybean meal. There are more than a dozen extruding processing plants in PA who are happy to buy your soybeans and these plants were not built with state money.

Can you imagine an out-of-state company, like Perdue, trying to buy up all of the PA crops of soybeans and asking farmers to abandon organic crops, corn, wheat, vegetables and other food crops to plant more soybeans? What about the rest of us in PA? We already have a soybean shortage in PA.

Let’s rethink this deal and do the right thing for all of us, including the animals and the environment.

Please contact your local Representative, Senator, DEP, EPA or the Governor directly and let them know that you do not support this dangerous project.

(Please click here to see the ad as it will appear in local newspapers this weekend.)

Again, like “pink slime” in beef, it’s about cost and competing with another vendor based on a cheaper price.

At Bell & Evans, we hold ourselves to a much higher standard than any other poultry company, because we know our customers would expect nothing less from us.

For instance, things that are common in the industry (but not at Bell & Evans):  baby chicks are started on a composting bed of manure that may be more than a year old.  A year old bed includes feces from several previous flocks.  The old manure is a haven for E. Coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter production.  The equipment that is used to transport the chickens to the processing plant is not cleaned and sanitized between loads.  Chickens are then loaded into a large chlorinated water chiller and the hope is that all this will go away!

At Bell & Evans, we believe combating E. Coli, and food safety in particular, all starts at the farm. Over the years we have developed a live operations program, and production process that is second to none!

Almost too numerous to mention in a single page letter, some of the following highlights what we commit to at Bell & Evans to assure the food safety and wholesomeness of our products to our customers:

• Barns with cement floors prevent rodents entry and spreading diseases
• A scientifically designed diet for our birds for peak health & well-being
• Rigorously test the feed and birds to insure quality & wholesomeness of each
• Athorough cleanout of all litter & complete sanitation of barns after each flock is removed
• Barns sit empty for 2-weeks prior to putting in fresh shavings and a new flock – this assures there can be no possibility of a flock-to-flock transmission of any “bug” whatsoever
• A complete and thorough cleaning of the plant & all equipment daily or between use
• 100% Air chill system – no massive chlorinated water bath chills for our birds
• Each bird is individually air chilled
• A single layer air chill system to assure there is no cross contamination by bird-to-bird dripping
• Each bird gets an Organic Certified anti-microbial dip to reduce the possibility of any contamination.
• Continuous sampling of our feed, litter, water, equipment & birds by our in house QC laboratory & monitored by top management

As you can see, we are proud of what we do, and stand behind the integrity of our product, people and processes in making sure every Bell & Evans chicken is the safest, most wholesome chicken our customers can buy.

For example, feeding animals Hexane produced soybean meal, arsenic, and DDGS ethanol by products loaded with sulfur and antibiotics.

In the poultry industry the list of short cuts and cost cuts could fit the “pink slime” description.

Let’s start moving the bar up.  It starts with consumers demanding retailers to carry brands that follow strict quality protocols.

Now that corn is worth three times the past 20 year average at $9.00 per bushel and nearly half the U.S. crop is going to produce ethanol, we may have started a food inflation cycle that will grow out of control.

Can you believe that we slow down our oil imports and increase food imports!

We need to use American farm land for more than just fuel!

Out of desperation many animal production farms have resorted to using up to 20% ethanol by-products in their diets.  Ethanol by-products are dangerous- antibiotic and chemical laced loads of garbage! I would not feed any animal this kind of product ever.

Food vs. Fuel leadership has gone amuck!

We at Bell & Evans have not cut quality in anything we do and our plans are to continue to improve in all areas.  This year we added fully recyclable boxes to our program and just recently started our SIA system.  We now think that we have the humane slaughter method for poultry in the World.

Just fill a pot with water, place the chicken pieces in the water and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the water, cover and set aside until you’re ready to grill.  This allows the meat to rest and retain its juices.  (Save the water you used to simmer the chicken for a stock base later.) The chicken will not be fully cooked, but it will require less time on the grill and less chance of drying out the meat.

When the grill is ready, place the pieces on the grill, until one side is golden brown, flip and brown the other side. At this point, if you choose, add your BBQ sauce and grill for several minutes until the sugar in the sauce starts to crackle and carmelize. Remove and serve. You and your family or guests will love the great taste of Bell & Evans grilled chicken!

Read food labels… especially the ingredient list. If it sounds like a chemical experiment, put it down. Also beware of some ‘all-natural’ products that say they contain “natural flavorings.” These so-called natural flavorings are added to foods that lose flavor in processing.

The definition of natural flavor under the Code of Federal Regulations is: “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.” (21CFR101.22).

Natural flavorings include things like high-fructose corn syrup, glutamate, sodium benzoate, etc.; and are created by ‘flavorists’ and produced in laboratories. There’s nothing natural about it.

I’m proud of Bell & Evan’s ingredients and encourage you to read our labels. We use all-natural ingredients in every frozen ready-to-cook and fully-cooked product we make. No artificial colorings – No artificial flavorings – No fillers – No extenders. I promise you won’t need a degree in chemical engineering to read them!

It all starts with our unique air-chilled processing system. Every Bell & Evans chicken is air chilled, so no water or chlorine permeates the meat to dilute the flavor or add water weight. Our chicken retains its own natural juices and insures each piece is tender and full of flavor. Whether fresh or frozen, you’ll taste the honest natural chicken flavor in every bite.

Read… then taste the difference for yourself!

At Bell & Evans, it is part of our Bell & Evans Best Practices Standard to be good stewards of the land year-round.

ON THE FARM

• Infertile Eggs are recycled – the liquids are separated from the shells and sent to a local methane digester to be converted to electricity. The shells are pulverized and used in fertilizer.

• Extruded and Expeller-pressed Soybeans – produce soy meal without releasing toxic Hexane gas into our environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) categorizes hexane as a hazardous air pollutant.

• Reclaimed Oil – oil, that is extruded and expeller pressed from soy beans, is converted to biodiesel and used by the trucks to transport grain to and from the mill.

• Chicken Manure – is composted for use on the farm or sold to other agricultural industries for fertilizer.

AT THE FACILITY

• Air Chilled Facility – our air-chilled system lowers our water usage by tens of thousands of gallons of water each day, over traditional poultry processing plants.

• State-of-the-art Wastewater Treatment Plant – wastewater effluent is discharged into the stream next to our plant, that is abundant with fish, muskrat, mink, frog and bird activity.

IN PACKAGING

• Fresh Packaging Trays – our new fresh product trays are made from 50% recycled materials and are PETE #1 recyclable.

• Frozen Packaging Boxes – are ‘paperboard packaging recyclable’ which means they are made from recycled or recyclable materials.

• Recyclable Shipping Containers – Since water does not weep from our air-chilled chicken, we and our retailers can recycle all of our shipping containers. Little changes can make a big difference.

Please join me in conserving our natural resources.

It’s the right thing to do.