Posted: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 7:48 p.m., EDT

The Honest Kitchen celebrated its upcoming switch to free-range chicken by decorating its booth at SuperZoo with feathers, which can now be found throughout the exhibit hall.

Petaluma Poultry, a division of Coleman Natural Foods, will be the sole provider of the chicken to the Honest Kitchen.

The company said it will incur a “significant” extra cost for the upgraded ingredients.

“Humane farming and respect for the origins of our food are very important to me on a personal level, and it’s been a long term ambition of our entire staff to be able to offer this level of quality to our consumers,” said Lucy Postins, founder and president of The Honest Kitchen. “To enable our consumers to embrace this upgrade during a time when everyone is trying to cut back, we are absorbing all costs, meaning costs will not increase on the shelf.”

Postins has wanted to switch to the free-range chicken for three years but was finally able to make the move this year, in part due to solid sales growth. The company’s sales are up 35 percent this year, she said, driven in part by market acceptance of the company’s value-oriented Keen line. <HOME>