Poultry processors have been warned by a report from the UK Food Standards Agency which shows that there is a continuing problem with added water and animal protein in chicken supplied to restaurants and takeaways.
The Food Standards Agency and 20 local authorities across the UK have joined forces to expose and tackle the continuing practice of adding water and other ingredients to chicken without declaring them on the label. While it is legally permitted to add these ingredients, they must be clearly stated on the label, by law. The percentage of meat content must also be accurately labelled.
The problem was first exposed in an Agency survey published in December 2001. The recent exercise is a follow-up to the previous work. It is also intended to give local authorities the evidence they need to consider formal enforcement action against persistent offenders.
The results show that the labels on more than half the samples surveyed claimed to have a higher meat content than was actually the case. Almost three-quarters used the description 'chicken breast' or 'chicken fillet', which should only be used for chicken with no added ingredients. Nearly half the samples contained traces of DNA from pigs and all but one of these were labelled as halal. All of the samples were taken from wholesalers dealing primarily with the catering trade.
David Statham, director of enforcement at the Food Standards Agency, said: "We know that in some cases consumers are not always getting what they pay for and the Food Standards Agency is determined to stamp this out. What is even more unacceptable is the total disregard as to how offensive this is to Muslim communities who may be eating food which is forbidden by their religious beliefs. For this reason, we have identified the brands so that people catering for these communities can take action themselves to avoid them."
Although the practice of adding other ingredients to processed chicken is not illegal, mislabelling is - a problem that the Food Standards Agency is working to eliminate.
In the testing, some 25 samples were taken from catering establishments and a manufacturer. The chicken was said to have come from sources in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The results of the testing showed that 15 of the samples claimed to contain more chicken meat than they actually had. Perhaps more importantly, 12 of the samples were said to contain 'non-chicken' DNA, such as pork or beef. Eleven of these were wrongly labelled as Halal and suitable for Muslims.