The Cobb 700, developed initially for heavy bird markets seeking high breast meat yield, has the slower growing attributes and robust health that make it suited to the higher welfare version of the standard chicken.

The Cobb Sasso 150 is the first product to emerge from the new partnership between Cobb and the French breeder Sasso, a world leader in coloured chickens.

The new breed is a coloured chicken bred from a rustic brown female mated to a white male, with around ten per cent of the broilers having brown feathers and providing distinctive colour markings.

“The new products will offer UK producers a wider choice of breeds for supplying the growing sector of the market where consumers are looking for higher welfare standards for both indoor and free range chickens,” says , marketing manager of Cobb Europe.

“Both breeds have been extensively tested at our UK trials farm and are already creating a lot of interest through the industry.”