Public being 'conned' over true content of chicken
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Your support makes all the difference.Food companies are conning the British public by selling chicken with unacceptably high levels of added water and foreign meat protein, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said yesterday.
A survey of 25 chicken wholesalers found the majority were deliberately mislabelling their products to conceal the trick of adding water to make the meat look bigger and heavier. In some cases, the FSA found that chicken labelled as Halal – slaughtered according to Muslim law – contained hydrolysed pork or beef protein that binds to the added water and prevents it escaping.
Labels on more than half the samples analysed claimed the product contained more meat than was present. In some cases, the chicken was more than 40 per cent added water. Almost three-quarters of labels described the chicken as "breast" or "fillet" words that legally can only be used for meat with no added ingredients.
Nearly half of the 25 samples contained traces of DNA from pigs – banned food for Muslims and Jews – and all but one of those were labelled as Halal, said David Statham, director of enforcement at the FSA.
He said: "Consumers are not always getting what they pay for. What is even more unacceptable is the total disregard as to how offensive this is to Muslim communities who may be eating food which is forbidden by their beliefs."
Hydrolysed protein made from pig skins or cow hide is mixed with water and injected or soaked into chicken meat to provide added bulk. Although the practice is not illegal, the law states that products prepared in this way must be clearly labelled and the percentage of meat displayed.
It was the second time in two years that the FSA had found serious mislabelling among wholesalers supplying frozen chicken meat to the catering industry. "These results look worse than last time, although this time we targeted products that failed the first time around," Mr Statham said.
Most of the frozen chicken tested is eaten in restaurants, canteens, takeaways or sold as prepared meals. A small amount ends up being sold in smaller shops, he said.
"Consumers are not getting what they paid for. It is totally unacceptable that this protein is there in chicken, even more so when chicken is described as Halal," said Mr Statham.
Investigations by the FSA and 20 local authorities identified 10 chicken-processing plants in the EU – one in the UK, two in Belgium and seven in the Netherlands – where the water bulking and mislabelling had taken place.
Their names were being withheld pending possible prosecutions, said Mr Statham. "What we don't want to do is to prejudice any legal proceedings that may follow," he explained.
The FSA had met officials in the Netherlands to discuss possible prosecutions of the seven Dutch Companies, Mr Statham said. "We are getting co-operation, the important thing is to eliminate this at source."
About 60,000 tons of chicken meat a year is used by the catering industry and only about 10 per cent is labelled as having added ingredients, such as water and animal protein. Fresh chicken sold in supermarkets are covered by specific regulations and should not have any added ingredients.
The FSA said there were no health risks from eating chicken with added animal protein even if it was beef because tests showed the protein came from hide rather than the specified offals banned under regulations designed to minimise the risk of BSE.
The motive for bulking chicken with added water was purely financial, Mr Statham said. "If you can sell water at the price of chicken breast then that must be a good move. Although some people have suggested that the chicken tastes more rubbery."
Advice from the agency to Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others worried about eating pork or beef unwittingly was that they should avoid buying chicken with added water. "You should certainly avoid the brands identified in this survey as containing undeclared pork of beef," the agency said.
Brands of chicken named yesterday by the agency in its report include De Kippenhof, Classic, and Lilly.
What the survey found
Of the 25 products tested by the Food Standards Agency:
* 15 claimed to have between 5 per cent and 25 per cent more meat than was actually the case. The rest was added water
* 18 used the description "breast" or "fillet", which should only he used for chicken with no added ingredients
* 12 tested positive for non-chicken DNA – 11 for pork and 1 for pork and beef – and 11 of these were also labelled halal
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