What's really in supermarket poultry

JOANNA BLYTHMAN dailymail.co.uk After the horsemeat scandal of earlier this year, we now have the chicken fiasco, where major chains have been exposed for selling frozen chicken with shockingly high levels of added water. An investigation this week revealed that some chicken breasts on sale in the UK are made up of no less than 20 per cent water. What you think is a juicy chicken breast may in fact have been pumped full of water, either mechanically injected or through an industrial process known as tumbling — and what is worse, chemical additives are also added during the procedure. The study highlighted one case of raw, frozen chicken breasts imported from Brazil into Britain and then sold in our supermarkets. While still in Brazil, salt and corn oil were added to the chicken breasts. Once in Britain, the breasts were thawed out and put through the vacuum-tumbling process. This saw water and chemical additives absorbed into the meat, increasing its weight and giving it a juicier, but wholly unnatural, texture. The breasts were then re-frozen and sold in the aisles of major retailers such as Aldi, Asda and Iceland. A curious double standard seems to be in operation here: home cooks are sternly warned never to re-freeze previously frozen meat, unless they have cooked it thoroughly. But behind the scenes of food manufacturing, frozen meat is being defrosted, pumped up with water and additives, then re-frozen all over again, and consumers are none the wiser. It is not illegal to add water and additives to chicken, as long as the additions are clearly displayed on the label. But the technical legalities are not the only issue here. There is also the unfairness of asking the public to pay more for a product than is justified.