The Year 10 school students compared the growth of chickens bred to lay eggs with chickens bred for meat and found that over a six-week period the meat chickens grew four times bigger than the egg chickens.

The research debunks the commonly held misconception that the larger size and better growth rates of the chickens we eat today is due to the use of hormones.

Last year, research released by the Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF) revealed that almost 80pc of Australians believe that something, such as growth hormones, is added to Australian chickens to make them grow artificially larger.

This was despite the fact that hormones have not been used in the production of meat chickens in Australia for more than 40 years.

"It's not hormones, antibiotics or genetic modification making chickens larger but best practice in traditional breeding," said Dr Andreas Dubs, executive director of ACMF.

"The truth is far less dramatic as was proven by this recent school project."