Post by MartinPost by JanetPost by Martinhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/supermarket-frozen-chicken-breasts-water
Read the label carefully before buying.
They are talking about a process used in frozen imported chicken.
"One large poultry processor in the UK, Westbridge Food Group, is importing raw
frozen Brazilian chicken to which salt or a mix of corn oil and salt has already
been added, then "tumbling" it with water and water-binding additives.
The meat is then repacked for sale as frozen chicken breast fillets in leading
supermarkets. Asda, Aldi and Iceland all sell frozen Brazilian chicken tumbled
this way by Westbridge as part of their own-label discount ranges.
SMKT "own label" raw meat must name any country of origin that's
outsie the EU. So long as it names Brazil as the place the Brazillion
chicken came from, they have not committed an offence.
Post by MartinSainsbury's also sells frozen chicken from the same factory with added water
under a brand name ? but not as its own label.
"
I read it to mean that the tumblimng process is done in UK in this case and in
the importing country in general.
It clearly says above, the chicken is
a) frozen raw then imported from Brazil
b) sold in the UK smkts as raw, frozen chicken.
It may be sold under SMKTS own label, but there has been no
suggestion that any UK smkt has broken the requirement to name Brazil as
"country of origin" on the label of raw frozen meat.
the same article says
"It is not illegal to sell chicken with added water so long as it is
declared.<....>The cheap ranges of frozen chicken on sale in the UK do
declare the added water, as well as additives such as phosphates
incorporated to stop the water from flooding out during cooking and
dextrose, a sugar added to mask the saltiness of the raw material."
Post by MartinPost by JanetI never buy frozen OR imported chicken.
We don't buy frozen chicken either. It's often hard to know exactly what the
origin is.
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/countryoriginlabellin
gscot.pdf
page 13 (raw meats)
"Chicken,turkey and other poultry which has been imported from a non
EU country (eg Thailand) has to show the country of origin . This does
not apply to cooked poultry or proceded dishes such as chicken Kiev"
same applies in EU
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/planned_ia/docs/2013_agri_019
_origin_labelling_unprocessed_meat_en.pdf
"Currently mandatory rules on o
rigin labelling exist for several sectors, such as beef, fruit and
vegetables,
bananas, olive oil, wine, eggs, imported poultry, honey and hops. In
particular for beef, the EU legislation
requires the indication of the country of birth, fattening and slaug
hter or the indication of one origin where all
three above mentioned stages of the life ofthe
animal took place in one country.
For other types of meat
(including the ones under the remit of this impact assessment)
, labelling of origin can currently be applied on a voluntary basis
, except for imported poultry meat where origin must be indicated
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Janet.