I admit it – I love chicken. Chicken Quesadillas, Chicken Pot Pie, Roast Chicken, Chicken Wings. The fact of the matter is, I’m not alone. Chicken is the most popular meat world wide and corporations want to take advantage of that fact. In light of this, Foster Farms has started a campaign against plumping chickens. What is plumping you ask? It’s the practice of injecting saltwater, chicken stock, seaweed extract or some combination thereof into chicken to increase its weight and price. So when you’re purchasing a chicken, you could be spending 15% more on saltwater. The result: hundreds of thousands of consumers are ponying up extra cash to unwittingly feed themselves and their families a dangerously unhealthy amount of salt.
What can we do about it? Watch the chicken labels. Plumped chicken labels will have (in small print) a phrase like “contains up to 15% saltwater.” And remember, almost all frozen and marinated products have either added salt or saltwater – fresh and natural chicken should not.
Foster Farms “Say No to Plumping” movie clip after the jump.
{ 1 trackback }