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Producers follow different methods and techniques for making foie gras. But the production timeline is very similar throughout the world. And for the final stage, all producers must use the gavage or force-feeding method to enlarge sufficiently the liver of the duck or goose.*

Here is a typical timeline for producing foie gras on a farm today:

  • For the first four or five weeks, the baby ducks or geese are kept in a heated barn on a bedding of straw or wood shavings.
  • For the next eight weeks, the birds are then moved to a new area – in California, they’re brought outside and kept in a large orchard; in New York, they are kept in barns. French and Canadian producers follow both procedures. The ducks are fed a diet that ranges from grass to corn.
  • At about 12-weeks-old, the ducks are then moved to a different barn where they undergo a feeding process called "gavage" or "force-feeding." In France and Canada, the birds are kept in either individual cages or pens. In the United States, the birds are kept in pens of different sizes that range from 4’ x 6’ to 3½’ to 10’.
  • For the next two to four weeks, the birds are fed two to three times a day a diet of corn mixed with water. They are fed through a tube that’s attached to either a hydraulic or pneumatic pump or, less often, a rotating auger. They are usually fed approximately a pound of feed at one time.
  • At the end of the gavage period, the ducks or geese are slaughtered.

France produces roughly 80 percent of the world’s foie gras. They are four producers in the United States. Hungary, Bulgaria and Canada are the other major producers.

*There are a few producers who skip the gavage stage. But their ducks and geese livers are much smaller and, according to chefs and producers, the taste is very different.