BBC receives hundreds of complaints over foie gras

A recent episode of popular TV show, Great British Menu, has prompted over 400 complaints to the BBC, after two chefs prepared dishes using foie gras. The BBC 2 show, now in its seventh series, follows chefs competing for the chance to cook at a “glittering Olympic banquet” which will be hosted by Sir Steve Redgrave. Aired on Monday 7 May, the controversial “North West Starter” heat, watched by more than two million people, saw Johnnie Mountain making foie gras ice cream and Aiden Byrne making black cherry and foie gras terrine. Animal rights group Viva! has been urging supporters to write to the BBC, saying: “Foie-gras is the grossly enlarged liver of a duck or goose and is essentially a disease, marketed as a delicacy. Birds raised for this ‘gourmet’ cruelty are force-fed enormous quantities of food through a long metal pipe, three times a day. This process of deliberate and painful overfeeding continues for up to a month by which time the birds’ livers have swelled to ten times their normal size. Every year, around a million ducks die during this period of force-feeding.” A BBC spokesman said: “As long as foie gras remains legal and freely available there is the possibility that it could be used as an ingredient in cookery programmes, just as it remains on restaurant menus around the world. If it were to be banned we would of course no longer allow it to be used.” To add your voice to the campaign against foie gras, check out Viva’s website , or order Belgian campaign group GAIA’s cruelty-free alternative delicacy “ faux gras “.