WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Buying chicken that has been plumped up with saltwater, chicken stock or seaweed extract is costing consumers — and possibly putting their health at risk, a coalition of poultry producers and consumers contends.
Most people don't know that much of the poultry sold in the United States contains 15 percent (by weight) saltwater, costing an estimated $1.50 a package, said Ira Brill, spokesman for Livingston, Calif.-based Foster Farms, a member of the Truthful Labeling Coalition. That $1.50 paid for water is based on a 3-pound package of boneless skinless chicken breasts priced at $3.33 a pound.
With the average family eating chicken twice a week, that could add up to $150 a year spent on unwanted saltwater and added sodium in the diet, Brill said. Eating too much salt can contribute to high blood pressure.
"It's wasting money and it's not healthful," Brill said. "In this economy, when we talk to consumers, the emotion that comes across is that they are being deceived."
For their part, big poultry processors call chicken with additives "enhanced." In blind taste tests, four out of five consumers favored the juicier enhanced products over the non-enhanced, said Ray Atkinson, spokesman for Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride.
"Take the taste test. Cook them side-by-side, and you will notice the difference" Atkinson said. "The notion that if they are choosing enhanced chicken they are eating some kind of deadly salt is false."
But those consumers that want to avoid saltwater-injected chicken can do so simply by checking the label's fine print, which states something like, "Natural chicken broth ingredients: Chicken broth, salt, carrageenan," or "Enhanced with up to 15 percent chicken broth."
Natural chicken should not have more than 70 milligrams of sodium per 4-ounce serving, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises. While a 4-ounce portion of enhanced chicken can contain up to 440 milligrams of sodium, some products are in the 300-milligram range.
Foster Farms and other chicken producers that do not inject their products with saltwater are also pushing for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to not allow plumped chicken to be labeled "100 percent natural."
Salisbury, Md.-based Perdue calls its line of enhanced chicken "Tender & Tasty" but does not label it natural, spokeswoman Julie DeYoung said. Only its non-enhanced products bear the natural label.
Enhanced or not, there's no question that Americans eat a lot of chicken — about 86 pounds per person per year.
For more information go to www.SayNoToPlumping.com, www.pilgrimspride.com and www.perdue.com.
Susan Salisbury writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: susan(underscore)salisbury(at)pbpost.com.