MyWestHartfordLIFE.com: Plan B Burger Bar – first restaurant group 100 percent Certified Humane Raised & Handled

Plan B Burger Bar has been named the first restaurant group in the country to become 100 percent Certified Humane Raised & Handled by Humane Farm Animal Care, the leading national non-profit certification organization dedicated to improving the lives of farm animals in food production. Plan B Burger Bar is an all-American burger, bourbon and beer bar with locations in West Hartford, Glastonbury and Simsbury.

Connecticut House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero presented Plan B with a General Assembly official citation congratulating the restaurant for “being the first restaurant group in the United States to be 100 percent Certified Humane Raised & Handled” and saying, “Your consideration for humane food production, the welfare of farm animals as well as the environment is commendable.”

Cafero also congratulated Allie Gamble, Plan B founder and CEO, Shawn Skehan, co-founder and partner, and Lena DiGenti, brand manager.

The commitment to treating animals with compassion “is something that’s important to all of us at Plan B, and it matters to the people who dine in our restaurants. We see vegetarians every week who tell us that they’ll eat our burgers because the beef is Certified Humane Meyer Natural Angus Beef,” Skehan said.

Certified humane beef means that cattle are allowed to exhibit natural animal behaviors, graze freely and have shelter from the elements. The cattle are never fed animal by-products, hormones or antibiotics.

Since Plan B was opened in 2006, it has controlled quality and freshness by grinding fresh, whole chuck meat in-house daily.

“This is who we are,” Gamble said. “As we continue our regional expansion, we’ll bring this same quality of product to each new burger bar that we open. Our corporate mission is to maintain the quality of old world artisan pride.”

The Certified Humane Raised & Handled program is the only farm animal welfare and food labeling program in the country that is dedicated to improving the welfare of farm animals from birth through slaughter for the 10 billion farm animals raised for food each year.

“We noticed that there were a lot of confusing labels that stated things like ‘natural certified beef’ or ‘independently certified humane.’ We wanted to educate the consumer to the fact that there are set standards and a defined protocol in place that dictates the rights to say ‘Certified Humane’ and that this not just clever marketing,” DiGenti said.

Founded in 2006, Plan B Burger Bar is an upscale burger bar created by Locals 8 Restaurant Holdings. Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell named Plan B the best burger in the state in 2009 during Connecticut’s official Plan B Burger Day on May 28.