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the Mail online | Mail - news, sport, showbiz, health and more | The 'plastic chicken' that's only 51% meat: "The 'plastic chicken' that's only 51% meat
by SEAN POULTER, Daily Mail 08:59am 21st May 2003 Shoppers are being fobbed off with low-quality chicken pumped full of chemicals, water and even pig skin.
The 'plastic chicken' that's only 51% meat
by SEAN POULTER, Daily Mail 08:59am 21st May 2003 Shoppers are being fobbed off with low-quality chicken pumped full of chemicals, water and even pig skin.
About 40 per cent of the imported chicken sold by catering suppliers undergoes heavy processing.
The meat that results is so rubbery and tasteless it is known in the trade as 'plastic chicken'.
Look here too...
Skip gossip links to more articles
* NEWS: the health horrors at the takeaway
* ARTICLE: is organic food really better for your health?
* FACTFILE: find out what you're really eating with our Food A to Z
Huge quantities are involved - about 60,000 tons a year - in what amounts to a massive food fraud.
Most of the meat comes from processors in Holland and Belgium, who bring in cheap chickens from Thailand and pump the meat with a chemical mix.
The treatment is now so sophisticated that what seems like a fresh, plump chicken breast might be only 51 per cent meat.
Much of the plastic chicken goes to curry houses, Chinese restaurants and takeaways, often disguised with highly- spiced sauces and colourings. There are concerns that some is sold to small butchers, while supermarket foods could also include suspect supplies.
The details - to be revealed in tomorrow's Panorama - will confirm the fears of British and Irish watchdogs. BBC TV investigators found many of the supermarkets use chicken with added water in ready meals. The stores say adding small amounts of water to the flesh prevents the meat from drying out.
But the Food Standards Agency is concerned that Moslems, who for religious reasons do not eat pig meat, might be consuming chicken that contains pork DNA.
Panorama found traces of pig DNA in own-label chicken nuggets sold by Sainsbury's, although this is being viewed as accidental contamination.
The ingredients on what looks like a 'natural' chicken breast can include a bizarre cocktail of materials designed to hold in the water.
They will include salt, stabilisers (E450, E451), the milk protein lactose and the sweeteners dried glucose syrup and dextrose to counteract the salt.
The use of pig material may be described - where there are labels - as hydrolised protein.
Flavour enhancers such as E649 and E621 are also often used to disguise the washed-out taste.
John Sanford of Hull Trading Standards, the authority leading investigations into the practice, said: 'We have had many complaints about the eating quality of this chicken when it turns up in a takeaway or restaurant.
'Consumers have told us it is spongy and rubbery and does not taste like normal chicken.'
He advised consumers to ask restaurants whether they were serving chicken with added water.
David Walker, of the Trading Standards Institute, said: 'It is clear that some brands of imported frozen chicken meat continue to be adulterated. The time for action is long overdue.
'Trading standards officers will continue to take action against importers, who have a moral and legal obligation to check the quality of the food they sell.'
Sainsbury's said: 'We take food integrity extremely seriously and have fully investigated the issues raised by Panorama.
'Following this investigation we would like to reassure our customers that the meat in Sainsbury's chicken nuggets are 100 per cent chicken sourced from approved suppliers.
'The type of testing used by Panorama is extremely sensitive and a minute amount of DNA can cause a positive reaction.
'Our own investigation included independent testing, none of which found any pork DNA in this product. We are entirely satisfied that our supplier is only using chicken suppliers who are approved by us and is following our strict quality procedures.'
s.poulter@dailymail.co.uk
by SEAN POULTER, Daily Mail 08:59am 21st May 2003 Shoppers are being fobbed off with low-quality chicken pumped full of chemicals, water and even pig skin.
The 'plastic chicken' that's only 51% meat
by SEAN POULTER, Daily Mail 08:59am 21st May 2003 Shoppers are being fobbed off with low-quality chicken pumped full of chemicals, water and even pig skin.
About 40 per cent of the imported chicken sold by catering suppliers undergoes heavy processing.
The meat that results is so rubbery and tasteless it is known in the trade as 'plastic chicken'.
Look here too...
Skip gossip links to more articles
* NEWS: the health horrors at the takeaway
* ARTICLE: is organic food really better for your health?
* FACTFILE: find out what you're really eating with our Food A to Z
Huge quantities are involved - about 60,000 tons a year - in what amounts to a massive food fraud.
Most of the meat comes from processors in Holland and Belgium, who bring in cheap chickens from Thailand and pump the meat with a chemical mix.
The treatment is now so sophisticated that what seems like a fresh, plump chicken breast might be only 51 per cent meat.
Much of the plastic chicken goes to curry houses, Chinese restaurants and takeaways, often disguised with highly- spiced sauces and colourings. There are concerns that some is sold to small butchers, while supermarket foods could also include suspect supplies.
The details - to be revealed in tomorrow's Panorama - will confirm the fears of British and Irish watchdogs. BBC TV investigators found many of the supermarkets use chicken with added water in ready meals. The stores say adding small amounts of water to the flesh prevents the meat from drying out.
But the Food Standards Agency is concerned that Moslems, who for religious reasons do not eat pig meat, might be consuming chicken that contains pork DNA.
Panorama found traces of pig DNA in own-label chicken nuggets sold by Sainsbury's, although this is being viewed as accidental contamination.
The ingredients on what looks like a 'natural' chicken breast can include a bizarre cocktail of materials designed to hold in the water.
They will include salt, stabilisers (E450, E451), the milk protein lactose and the sweeteners dried glucose syrup and dextrose to counteract the salt.
The use of pig material may be described - where there are labels - as hydrolised protein.
Flavour enhancers such as E649 and E621 are also often used to disguise the washed-out taste.
John Sanford of Hull Trading Standards, the authority leading investigations into the practice, said: 'We have had many complaints about the eating quality of this chicken when it turns up in a takeaway or restaurant.
'Consumers have told us it is spongy and rubbery and does not taste like normal chicken.'
He advised consumers to ask restaurants whether they were serving chicken with added water.
David Walker, of the Trading Standards Institute, said: 'It is clear that some brands of imported frozen chicken meat continue to be adulterated. The time for action is long overdue.
'Trading standards officers will continue to take action against importers, who have a moral and legal obligation to check the quality of the food they sell.'
Sainsbury's said: 'We take food integrity extremely seriously and have fully investigated the issues raised by Panorama.
'Following this investigation we would like to reassure our customers that the meat in Sainsbury's chicken nuggets are 100 per cent chicken sourced from approved suppliers.
'The type of testing used by Panorama is extremely sensitive and a minute amount of DNA can cause a positive reaction.
'Our own investigation included independent testing, none of which found any pork DNA in this product. We are entirely satisfied that our supplier is only using chicken suppliers who are approved by us and is following our strict quality procedures.'
s.poulter@dailymail.co.uk
posted by waltg at 10:22 AM
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