DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION (Details) bird / WK in Millions, lb in Billions	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 27, 2016 employee bird / WK state grower country segment lb
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Number of countries in which entity exports products | country	90
Number of states in which entity operates | state	12
Number of employees | employee	37,900
Maximum processing capacity of employees per week (in birds per week) (more than) | bird / WK	37
Maximum annual processing capacity of employees (in pounds) (more than) | lb	11
Number of contract growers | grower	4,035
Percentage of beneficial ownership by holding company	76.70%
Number of reportable segments | segment	1