Dumb Chicken?

Consumers Pay Billions For Salt Water in Chickens

Friday, 15 May 2009
The Truthful Labeling Coalition estimates that American consumers annually spend an estimated $2 billion for added salt water in commercial grade chickens, The Wall Street Journal reported. Currently, roughly one-third of fresh chicken sold in the USA is "plumped" with water, salt and sometimes a seaweed extract that helps the meat retain the water. And, the USDA allows such chickens to be marketed as "all natural" or "100% natural." This is hardly the case. Untreated chicken has about 45 to 60 mgs of sodium per four-ounce serving whereas "plumped" chicken has between 200 to 400 mgs of sodium per serving. This is almost as much as a serving of fast food French fries. Chicken companies say their private surveys show that consumers prefer the salty taste of the plumped chicken and said the practice was forced upon them by the large discount chain stores that wanted a uniform weight and price for each chicken. A recent telephone survey of 1000 West Coast consumers found that 63% were unaware of the practice and 82% believe that salt-water injected chicken shouldn’t carry the all-natural label.

You can find more informative articles like this one, written by Alan Nation of the Stockman GrassFarmer, by logging on to his blog.