Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been accused of conning viewers with his recent Channel 4 show Hugh's Chicken Run.

The TV chef investigated chicken farming for the programme, which featured in Channel 4's Big Food Fight season of shows. Fearnley-Whittingstall set up different chicken units for the TV experiment, including an intensively reared farm and a free range run.

The units were investigated by industry watchdog Assured Food Standards, who ruled that both farms failed to meet basic health standards. Hugh was also accused of encouraging animal cruelty in order to exaggerate conditions at the intensively reared farm. However, the footage was cut from the programme.

David Clarke, chief executive of Assured Food Standards, told the Sunday Mirror: "When Hugh set up this experiment he told viewers it would run to industry standards.

"There was no way it was going to pass our inspection. We agreed to give Hugh a 20-minute debrief at the end of the inspection on camera, and we broke the news that they had failed.

"It was obvious some of what we said was not helpful to the message Hugh wanted to give his fans. I was pretty shocked when that wasn't shown on the programme. Hugh didn't pass the test and it didn't fairly represent intensive farms."

Fearnley-Whittingstall hoped to use the programme to encourage consumers to buy free-range chickens.

A Channel 4 spokesman said: "We voluntarily invited the ACP to visit the farm in Hugh's Chicken Run. There was no requirement for us or any other chicken producers to join the scheme or to have an inspection.

"We also didn't include either the RSPCA or the vets' visits in the programme, both of whom told us they were satisfied we achieved conditions comparable to those within the industry. We had hired a thoroughly qualified stockman, and set the farm up as close as possible to industry standards."