That could be the title of the post I read over on Allan Nation’s “Stockman Grassfarmer Blog”. You can check the post out for yourself, but this little bit really says it all:
“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.”
The poultry companies claim that they have been forced to go this route (have no reason to doubt them) because the large chains want a uniform product and by adding as much as 400 mgs of salt per 4-ounce serving they can get that uniformity. The rub for some people is that the companies are still allowed to call these “plumped” chickens 100% natural or all natural.
I suppose you could say that salt is a “natural” thing, but finding it in such high amounts in a serving of chicken is pretty unnatural I would think…
I suppose if they “plumped” chickens with oil they could still call it natural..
With this recession more people are trying backyard chickens. Vancouver B.C. just changed their bylaws to allow chickens in the city. Maybe people will get a taste for unplumped chicken.
People who really pay attention to what’s going on have known that All Natural and Natural labels on food mean absolutely nothing for years. It’s a marketing ploy.
Look at potato chips. The Lay’s Classic brand of potato chip is made from potatoes cooked in oil and salted. The Lay’s Natural brand of potato chip is made from potatoes cooked in oil and salted. The difference? Lay’s Natural costs about 25% more.
We started buying the more expensive chicken in the store a couple of years ago… it actually tastes like real food! Though we just recently found that the chicken in the meat case at Fareway tastes about as good, and it is much less expensive than the special brands we were buying before. Don’t know if it is “plumped” or not, but maybe I’ll ask next time I’m there. We know the meat manager from church!