Hmmm capitalism.
… in the US.
In Finland too!
“with added water” is pretty commonly added after the chicken, pork, whatever in the ingredients list here in Estonia.
Not just chicken, basically anything that says “VALUE ADDED” on it. The saltwater is the value.
I remember growing up seeing Foster Farms commercials saying they don’t do this. It was the main theme of nearly all their ads.
When I was a teenager, I got a job at the local Foster Farms plant. My job was part of the process of injecting the chicken with saline. 😬
Bruh
My job was part of the process of injecting the chicken with
teenage you:
Were those the commercials with the chickens in the convertible coming to California from the Midwest?
I think that was one. It was a whole series of a couple of chickens trying to pass themselves off as Foster Farms chicken but they always got called out for being plumped and not natural.
Mandatory “in the US”.
While this one is technically legal in the EU, it would require labeling the salty water as an ingredient if it changes the weight significantly.
It’s labeled in the US. You’ll see language like “may contain up to N% x, y, z solution” etc.
However that would require us to read
I read this comment but don’t have time to read labels on everything I eat
I can assure you that meat in the Netherlands is also filled up with water. Pretty much all meat sold in the super markets will when cooked first release the water, causing the meat to boil for a bit before it is evaporated. They don’t have to mention it on the packaging if it’s below 5%, which means in reality it’s closer to 10%. Since the Netherlands exports a lot of meat, it’ll be all over at least Europe.
They feed chickens (and other animals) with that stuff that muscle builders use which causes them to get thirsty and distends the muscle cells just before slaughter.
Meat, in general, has a lot of water. It having water is not evidence of this technique. If your meat somehow doesn’t have water then you need to be extra concerned.
Sure, but the water tends to come out during freezing, and to make up for that, they inject water before hand. Like I said, anything below 5% doesn’t have to be reported, which gets stretched to 10% so they can make up for the loss a second time.
Aren’t they doing it with shrimps and Salomon in the eu?
Is it legal? It used to be illegal.
Adding salty water to food is perfectly legal, as both salt and water are allowed ingredients for processed food. Lying about it is not.
In the US they do. In Canada it’s illegal.
Yup, here in the EU illegal as well.
Not EU-wide then. Pork/chicken “with added water” is pretty common here in Estonia. Usually pre-flavored meat cuts and such. If it’s completely fresh, unseasoned meat, then usually there’s no water listed, so hopefully that does in fact mean they don’t add water.
Here’s one manufacturer’s product with ingredients translated
Ufff, thanks for the info. Apparently the EU wide regulation is just for chicken. And in germany adding salted water to meet of any kind is generally also not allowed.
Canadian women also don’t get as many boob jobs.
Most absurd “facts” here are in the US. It’s ilegal in my coutry too
Hard to believe 500 milligrams of sodium has no taste. I’ve boiled lots of chicken and theres never been enough salt to taste in it without I add a lot
The water cooks out very fast and I’ll bet the salt largely goes with it.
Yeah some it might but at a third of the total weight I’d bet most of it precipitates into the flesh as the water heats up
500mg of salt is about 1/10 of a teaspoon, not very much.
Also to help packaging n shelf life. Chicken production and processing facilities are both morally and biologically disgusting.
It’s not “processing”. It’s murder. Call it what it is.
Ill agree that what we do to most chickens is deplorable. That said words are made by humans w certain meanings. Murder is reserved for something human and something unlawful.
Maybe mass slaughter? conveyor belt slaughtering?
Weird fact. Did you know a human once decapitated a chicken and it still lived for a year? Google it if you don’t believe.
Right?
Genuinely worse than the holocaust no doubt. By several orders of magnitude.
Even holocaust survivors call what we do the animals a holocaust. not THE holocaust, but A holocaust. It’s truly disgusting. We kill 1-3T animal EVERY FUCKING YEAR. It’s beyond fucked.
Murder is a process an art even. And these fuckers make a mockery of it.
I demand Sweeney Todd quality chicken murder!
At least chicken is salt brined, ready for owen.
Not in sane places, it doesn’t.
so basically only the usa does it.
same with prepacked bacon. fuck you foster farms.
Because that’s literally how you make bacon…
that’s one way to make bacon
Don’t worry, you can get it precooked!
The only bacon I buy now is thick stuff from Costco (there are two or three brands that are good at my local one), or from a butcher shop. and not even all the stuff from Costco is decent, they still carry the shitty watered down thin fatty stuff.
nothing else is worth it. I will gladly pay $22/kg for bacon that doesn’t suck and two slices are an actual serving rather than $24/kg for a tiny shitty 400g package that contains basically just one serving. but I’m also buying it only occasionally in the first place.
I’m $75 away from smoking my own
People didn’t know this?
Great way to cheat the customer and also ruin recipes that don’t take into consideration that cups of salt water will come out while cooking the chicken.
They also do this to beef, pork, and a bunch of other meats in the US. The higher water content is part of the reason preservation methods don’t work as well.
For instance, trying to make Jerry out of water injected beef means you have to dry out the added water in addition to what was in the meat to start with, and you can’t use the post drying weight to calculate if it is dry enough.
Plus poking the holes to add the water is one more vector for bacteria…
Poor Jerry
Hey he started both those wars.
Huh, I don’t remember that episode of Seinfeld.
Jerry was the name of ze germans in ww1.
Funny you mentioned Jerry seinfeld, I used to really like him until I found out he’s a big Zionist. So he is a Nazi himself fyi. Fuck that guy Larry David’s okay.
Is Larry David a Zionist?
No not that I’ve ever heard.
And basically all frozen chicken in US stores has been pumped full of brine. That includes raw chicken parts that look otherwise unprocessed.
Not only that. That’s the way most people like it. How many people here are equipped at home to brine their own chicken and turkey on any given day? It costs manufacturers more to ship that way as well due to the extra water weight. But chicken can often be dry enough as it is. If you’re grilling, baking for preparing chicken in any way that doesn’t involve cooking it in a sauce or reduction. You absolutely want it brined generally.
In a lot of the world, chicken isn’t typically sold like this and people aren’t doing it themselves. If it ends up dry, it’s taken as a sign that it’s overcooked, not that it should have been brined.
Oh for sure. It’s a convenience thing through and through.
Brining chicken isn’t terribly hard. Just a ziplock and some salt water with seasoning. (Or leftover pickle juice.)
The problem is that if you want chicken now you’re gonna need a time machine to go back 12-24 hours to brine the chicken, and people will pay for convenience.
Brining a turkey requires large and specialized equipment, though.
Yep definitely not hard. But absolutely time-consuming.
How many people here are equipped at home to brine their own chicken and turkey on any given day?
literally everyone that owns a bucket, salt and has access to water… do you think brining a bird is some fancy thing that requires specialized equipment? soak a bird in salt water… add spices if you want. done…
Equipped? Maybe
Have the patience to? Probably not!
Have resources would have been a clearer choice of words. Most don’t have the resource of time.
Or the knowledge to know that it even needs doing.
Sure. It’s been a thing in America I know for a long enough time that many are completely unaware of it. Hence TIL. Which let me reiterate is not to shame anyone learning of this today. Learning is awesome and keep it up.
