Celebrity chef and healthy cooking campaigner Jamie Oliver has come in for criticism after signing a lucrative deal to promote frozen chicken meals in Brazil.
The Telegraph reports that Oliver secured a £11.5 million deal with Sadia, a division of the Brazilian food giant BRF Brazil. He will put his name to a range of frozen chicken meals produced by the company.
The company is the second largest chicken producer in the world and is responsible for almost 20 per cent of chickens reared globally.
Oliver, who has championed a ‘food revolution’ through activities such as his Ministry of Food centres said at a media conference that the move is intended to let him engage with the company and change it from within.
However, health groups criticised the move.
“He’s a public figure who has built his image on local produce, home-cooking and fresh food,” said Elisabetta Recine, coordinator of the Observatory of Food Security and Nutrition Policies and a professor at the School of Nutrition at the University of Brasília.
“Sadia is a chain linked to intensive production. He has betrayed the narrative that he has built.
“Jamie Oliver won’t make Sadia better but Sadia will make Jamie Oliver worse.”
Similarly, animal welfare groups reacted negatively.
“Jamie Oliver, the world is disappointed with you. We hope you have the good sense to go back while you can,” the Brazilian Vegetarian Society said in a statement.