Where Does Trader Joe's Organic Chicken Actually Come From?

When it comes to shopping for meat and poultry, transparency in the form of labels and certifications is crucial for a lot of us. At a store like Trader Joe's, which sells products primarily under the Trader Joe's private label, that transparency is a tad trickier to navigate. For shoppers who are committed to the organic labels and certifications on chicken, knowing where those private label packages are coming from can be the difference between buying it at Trader Joe's, or going somewhere else.

Because Trader Joe's is a national chain, suppliers for products like organic chicken are going to vary based on location. While shoppers can speak to a "crew member" at Trader Joe's for more information about specific products in their store, the non-profit newsroom ProPublica came up with an alternative process using the packaging itself, providing more transparency to the inner workings of the supply chain. In 2021, ProPublica launched its Chicken Checker app as a way to identify where people's poultry was really coming from, allowing readers to enter in the P-number on the packaging — typically a three or four digit code starting with the letter P — to trace a specific package of meat back to where it was processed.

According to ProPublica, almost 900 people entered details about their various poultry packages when the app first launched. Readers who submitted labels from around the country to the app found that poultry sold at Trader Joe's was being sourced from at least 15 different plants, including Perdue plants in Delaware and California, and Cooks Venture Poultry in Oklahoma.

For those lucky enough to buy fresh meat and produce from a family farm or a farmer's market, there's no question where those products are coming from, while national grocery chains can be more of a guessing game. Thankfully, with the power of the Chicken Checker app, you can use that P-number on the package for more clarity. Trader Joe's sources from several plants around the country, but two of the largest for its organic products are Petaluma Poultry in Petaluma, California, and Perdue Foods in Milford, Delaware.

If your organic chicken package has the code P-1318 on it, it was processed at the Perdue Foods plant in Milford, Delaware. According to ProPublica, from 2021 to 2022, the plant met the USDA standard for chicken parts, and only 1.7% of chicken part samples had salmonella of any type.

If your organic chicken package has the code P-2882, it was processed at the Petaluma Poultry plant in Petaluma, California, also a subsidiary of Perdue Foods. This plant also met the USDA standard for chicken parts from 2021 to 2022 according to ProPublica, with 12.5% of chicken part samples having salmonella of any type. Petaluma Poultry, however, has received backlash in the past few years, coming under scrutiny from animal rights activists with claims of health and safety violations, inhumane and unsanitary conditions, and genetically modifying birds using illegal hormones. No matter where in the country you happen to live, if you're buying your organic chicken from Trader Joe's, the Chicken Checker app can provide some more clarity about the various processing plants they source from, giving you more answers than a simple label can provide.