By Sophie Borland

Tesco has been criticised by environmentalists for selling chicken labelled as 'local' that has actually been on a 1,000-mile round trip to be slaughtered and packaged.

Tesco is the UK's largest supermarket chain

The supermarket is currently stocking poultry reared on a site in North-East Scotland that is sent 499 miles to Essex to be processed before being returned to Scotland to go on sale.

According to a report by the Meat Trades Journal, chickens killed at the Grampian Country Foods slaughterhouse in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, have been shipped to Witham in south-east Essex since the nearby packaging plant in Banff, Aberdeenshire shut down last year.

Environmental groups have accused Tesco of adding to the growing carbon emissions while clocking up unnecessary food miles.

Richard Watts, campaign director at Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, described the situation as 'crazy'. He said: "It is an illogical thing to do and the carbon emissions that result will be extremely damaging to the environment.

"Considering the significant contribution of the food industry to the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, this kind of practice should be the first to go if companies such as Tesco are serious about their overall responsibility in relation to the climate change crisis."

Vicki Hird of Friends of the Earth said: "Consumers thinking they are buying greener, local and Scottish are actually buying pretty travel-sick chicken.

"How many more unnecessary food miles do Tesco's centralised, mass-produced systems result in?"

The supermarket has defended its actions however by saying that it didn't have any option. It would not comment on how many chickens were being sent to Essex but said the situation would be resolved later this year.

Max Tooley, Tesco's meat technical manager for poultry said: " Last year the Grampian Country Food Group closed their Banff site which didn't leave us any option."

He said that the situation had been in place for around six months now but would soon be changed with the approval of a new processing plant in Scotland. Tesco could be switching their packaging to the new site within the next two weeks, he added.

Last month the supermarket came under fire over plans to install a giant warehouse near Andover, Hants, that would bringing large numbers of lorries to the surrounding countryside.

Environmentalists have warned that the surrounding roads would be unable to cope with the increased traffic and that there would be damaging effects to the countryside.