Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) and I recently called on the USDA to reform their labeling standards to protect poultry consumers.  The Center For Science in the Public Interest has joined us in urging the USDA to make these changes.

Currently, USDA standards permit fresh chicken to be sold as “all naturalâ€? even when the meat has been “pumped up” through injection or vacuum tumbling with 15% water, sodium, binding agents like carrageenan (seaweed extract), and other additives.

This procedure cheats consumers at their wallets and their diets.  When you purchase chicken by weight at the grocery store, and it has been injected with 15% sodium solution, then you’re buying salt water at chicken prices.

Shoppers on a low-sodium diet may be purchasing this “all naturalâ€? chicken as part of a healthy diet, unknowingly consuming 800% more sodium per serving than in truly natural chicken.  When Mississippi’s WLBT-TV in Jackson investigated this story, they found “a package of ‘enhanced’ chicken that has 350 mg of sodium. That’s four times the amount in chicken with no additives and more sodium than in a bag of potato chips.”  In a state like Mississippi where we face issues of hypertension and cardiovascular disease — and for the health of Americans everywhere — we need a reform of these standards.

Furthermore, poultry producers who truly provide “all naturalâ€? chicken — with no additives, no pumping, no salt water — face a marketing disadvantage when their competitors inject additives into chicken but still label them “all natural.”  The competitors are selling less chicken meat with higher sodium and benefiting from the same “all naturalâ€? label.

In the letter Congressman Cardoza and I sent to the USDA this past week, we aren’t asking the USDA to prevent poultry producers from pumping these chickens.  We just want to ensure consumers have the information they need to purchase the best chicken, at the best price, for their families.  We want the market to decide, but we don’t want consumers misled by false labels.  If the chicken is pumped up with sodium water and other additives, it shouldn’t be labeled “all natural.”  And those additives that are injected should be clearly listed in a large font on the package.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Politics, Healthcare .