No chicken soup for soul

BENGALURU : Even as the fear of Covid-19 continues to loom large, people are bracing themselves for the bird flu outbreak, dropping chicken dishes from their daily platter and moving towards seafood and mutton instead

Until a few weeks ago, no meal was complete for Jayotsana Bedi’s family without a chicken dish. But now, they have completely given up chicken as precaution in light of the outbreak of bird flu. Like Bedi, many people are moving away from poultry dishes, not wanting to risk any health issues in these times.  

Bedi says that after the fear of coronavirus, they aren’t willing to take any chances. “Chicken used to be an essential ingredient in our home. But now, we are completely moving towards mutton and seafood,” says Bedi, an HR professional, adding that they have not completely given up eggs, although it does come under poultry. “We go for free-range eggs as of now, but we are keeping tab on the update. If there is any further news, we will stop consuming eggs too,” she adds.

The fear of bird flu has impacted the F&B industry as well, with demand of poultry dishes having come down. Aasim Shah, owner of Kabapci, says they had seen a significant drop in meat consumption since the pandemic and now it has dipped further with the outbreak of bird flu. “We have seen a 60 per cent drop in people ordering chicken dishes. Almost 40 per cent of the menu consists of chicken dishes, and even if we recommend it, people are avoiding it,” says Shah. 

Keeping the situation in mind, restaurants are trying to curate menus with fewer chicken options. “Although we have still not removed chicken dishes from our menu because there are people who opt for it, we have reduced the amount of chicken we used to get from the vendor. However, we are curating more dishes with mutton and seafood because people still like consuming meat,” says chef Udayshankar Shenoy from cafe, Lazy Suzy.