Crackdown on water in chicken scam

Thursday 19 June 2003

New proposals from the Food Standards Agency to the European Commission recommend a cap on the amount of water that may be added to chicken, plus a ban on adding non-chicken proteins (such as beef and pork).

Under the Agency’s proposals, the amount of added water in chicken and poultry products would be limited to 15%. Beef and pork proteins are added to enable the product to hold very high levels of water, so if the amount of added water were limited to 15%, the need to add non-chicken proteins would be removed.

However, to ensure such practices are stopped, the Agency is also proposing a ban on adding non-chicken proteins to chicken.

Agency Chair Sir John Krebs said:

‘Under European law it is not illegal to add huge amounts of water or beef and pork proteins to chicken as long as this appears on the label. It may be legal but it doesn’t make it acceptable.

‘The only reason to add the proteins is to pump up the water to high levels – that’s a recipe for ripping consumers off. That’s why we consider that the amount of water that can be added to chicken should be limited and the use of non-chicken proteins banned.’

There are currently no legal limits on the amount of water that can be added to chicken and poultry products.

The suggested measures follow two surveys by the Agency in the UK (December 2001 and March 2003) that revealed some chicken pieces contained as much as 55% added water. In some cases, beef and pork proteins were used.

The FSA surveys also revealed that many products were mislabelled and twenty local authorities are considering formal enforcement action against the relevant companies. Dutch authorities have reported that they have taken formal enforcement action against five companies processing chicken products in the Netherlands, which is at the centre of this industry.