Supermarkets have been given permission to sell frozen turkeys as fresh as avian flu has put turkeys at risk this Christmas.
It comes as industry bosses revealed that 600,000 of the 1.2million free range birds due to be sold for Christmas have either died or been culled as a result of the major outbreak.
Now, certain rules have been eased to allow birds to be slaughtered early and defrosted before they’re sold in supermarkets.
The decision was confirmed by the Department for Environmental, Farming & Rural Affairs and will run until December 31.
Retailers have been advised by suppliers to kill birds early - and then freeze them to ensure families won’t go without a turkey this Christmas.
Some stores have started labelling their defrosted birds to make customers aware, due to health and safety concerns that come with freezing defrosted meat.
Speaking of the change, Tesco said its smaller crowns will be “sold fresh and marked defrosted” - but the supermarket's fresh birds will be prepared in the normal way.
Morrisons will also be selling frozen turkeys as fresh, but said it would label its unfrozen birds to make customers aware.
Sainsbury’s said: “We are confident we will have enough turkeys.”
In a bid to protect its birds from the outbreak, Asda has moved all of their birds outside of Norfolk.
The new rule comes shortly after poultry farmers warned that the UK was in store for a "big, big shortage" that could leave families missing out on their Christmas dinners as whole flocks have been wiped out in the worst ever outbreak.
Roughly one million of the 8.5 to 9million total supply of turkeys for Christmas have been affected by the avian flu outbreak.
British Poultry Council chief executive Richard Griffiths said at a Commons hearing that the problem was “huge”.
He told MP's: “This year is the worst bird flu outbreak that we've seen. Around 1.6million birds have been culled because of bird flu on farms.
“So it's huge and the ongoing costs for industry and food production are potentially enormous.
"This year the seasonal producers have been so badly affected. I can see many of those taking a good hard look at whether they want to be in Christmas poultry."
Paul Kelly, who runs Kelly Turkeys in Colchester, Essex, told MPs that the spread of the outbreak was "devastating".
He warned: "There will be a big, big shortage of British free-range turkeys on the shelves this year."
