Take a trip to your local branch of Pret a Manger and the chances are you'll be made aware of their "fresh ingredients" boasts.So the news that the high street chain is importing frozen chicken from Brazil, may come as a surprise to some.
The meat in the company's "Just Made" range of chicken sandwiches is frozen and then shipped the 6,000 miles to the UK.
At this point, the chicken is defrosted, marinated and poached before being added to your coronation or Caesar salad sandwich.
The firm, which makes £200 million a year, insists that the only reason for choosing South American chicken is animal welfare.
Pret claims that the birds produced in Brazil enjoy better "animal welfare" conditions as compared to those used by rival sandwich makers.
But the revelation comes just a week after it emerged that the chain's "spankingly fresh" sushi was in fact frozen in Chile and shipped to the UK before it made it onto the shelves.
Never mind the misleading advertising issue surrounding the "fresh" ingredients, environmentalists are outraged by the enormous carbon footprint the company is leaving behind.
Yesterday Pret's co-founder Julian Metcalfe insisted that by 2012 the company would be selling only British free-range chicken.
He told the Daily Mail: "People should buy less chicken or buy proper chicken. We have got to move free range by 2012. This is about bigger issues than the word "fresh".
If only his critics agreed.
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