A scheme to try to reassure consumers that poultry products are safe to eat has been launched with the backing of Agriculture Minister Nick Brown.

The Quality Assurance Scheme will introduce a kitemark to certify whether producers treat their chickens properly, that they are not fed antibiotic growth promoters and that their life history can be traced.

Fourteen million broiler chickens are sold in the UK every week, but consumers have voiced concerns that many are kept in unhealthy conditions.

Antibiotic growth promoters fatten the birds quickly but can lead to their bodies becoming so overgrown that their legs cannot support them.

Launched at the Institute of Grocery Distribution Food Project Conference in London, the scheme is supported by many household names in the chicken production and food retail sectors, including all the major supermarkets.

Mr Brown said: "At this critical and challenging time for UK farming, the IGD Food Project has proved to be a leading light in bringing the supply chain together.

"MAFF fully endorses the launch today of Assured Chicken."

The scheme will be implemented by a new company, Assured Chicken Production.

The company will be managed by Professor Colin Spedding, a keen advocate of food safety and bird welfare standards.

He said: "This scheme ensures the highest standards of production.

"A key driver of the success of the initiative is that it has set its sights on leading improvements in standards, ensuring the consumer always gets the best offer possible."

Andrew Lewins of Grampian Country Food Group, the UK's biggest chicken producer told the BBC: "The scheme has real teeth.

"Non-conformance with the food safety and animal welfare code will mean exclusion from the scheme.

"That would mean that the producer loses his right to market his product with the high street retailer."

Red lion mark

But the scheme will not guarantee that poultry products are free from salmonella.

During World War II and throughout the 1950s, chicken was a luxury food which few families could afford to eat regularly.

Then, due mainly to intensive farming methods increasing productivity and keeping prices low, chicken became what it is today - the UK's favourite meat.

But in recent years, poultry has had a bad press, not least due to the salmonella in eggs scare.

The reintroduction of the red lion quality logo on eggs last year was a key step in the poultry industry's fight-back strategy.

The Quality Assurance Scheme will have a similarly easily recognisable logo.

It is still in the design stage but should be finalised in the next few weeks.