Chicken. The healthy alternative to beef. The original white meat. Raise your hand if you don’t have chicken at least once or twice a week, if not daily. And when you buy it unprepared, you’re getting an all natural product. NOT.

Turns out you are paying for a product with natural ingredients – Chicken, water, salt. Up to 15% salt water, injected into the chicken, and approved by the USDA! Consumer watchdog group CSPI has this to say

The practice of pumping up poultry with salt water is basically a hidden tax of up to 15 percent that extracts about $2 billion from American consumers each year. This isn’t about “enhancing” chicken, it’s about enhancing profits.

Think of it this way. You think you’re buying 7.5 pounds of chicken, if 15 percent is water weight; you’re really getting less than six and a half pounds of chicken and more than one pound of added water. read more…

What you need to know:

This is a double whammy for consumers – pay more-get less AND kill yourself with excess salt.

Raw chicken has very little sodium in it, only 50-75mg per 4 z serving. But the injected versions has as much as 550mg! That’s when the maximum recommended consumption should be 2400mg per day or 1500mg for adults over 45, certain ethnic groups, and people with high blood pressure. Most Americans are already consuming 4000mg per day, and this leads to various health complications that kill 100,000 people annually.

The Truthful Labeling Coalition, is a lobbying group of poultry producers that don’t enhance their products. They’ve been pushing the USDA to change its policy, currently allowing up to 15% of the product sold to us as chicken to be salty water.

Manufacturers who add sodium claim that this is what consumers want. Of course, clearer labeling would help consumers better understand and decide for themselves if they want this dubious “benefit”.

What to do at the supermarket:

Read the fine print on the label. If it says “enhanced with broth / marinade” or something similar, this means it could contain up to 15% water and a whole lot of sodium you don’t need. You get punished twice – paying for chicken and getting water, and the excess sodium.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate
New! Choose a better breakfast with CerealScan™ by Fooducate

From the upcoming January edition of Consumer Reports Magazine, disheartening news about the pathogen content of broiler chickens. More than 60% were infected with either salmonella or campylobacter. If this makes you sad, at least it’s an improvement over 2007, where 80% of broilers were contaminated.

These are crazy high numbers. It did not matter if the chickens were from top brands like Perdue and Foster Farms, or from smaller players, or even supermarket brands.

What you need to know:

Salmonella is a bacteria. According to the Mayo Clinic, there are more than 2,000 varieties of salmonella, but only about a dozen of them cause illnesses in people. Most cause severe diarrhea. The feistier ones result in typhoid fever, which can be deadly.

Campylobacter literally mean twisted bacteria. It produces cramps, stomach pains, diarrhea, and dysentery. According to the CDC, In persons with compromised immune systems, campylobacter occasionally spreads to the bloodstream and causes a serious life-threatening infection.

Consumer Reports says that each year, salmonella and campylobacter from chicken and other food sources infect 3.4 million Americans, send 25,500 to hospitals, and kill about 500!

What to do at the supermarket:

There’s not much you can do at the supermarket because it’s impossible to know by looking at a piece of chicken or meat if it has been contaminated or not.

Rather, at home you should take every measure to protect yourself. It’s not that difficult. Make sure you always separate between raw and cooked product, as well as plates and utensils used with each. Always cook the chicken to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a meat thermometer to make sure you’ve reached the right temperature.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com

A) Strawberry ice cream

B) Chicken

C) Plastic foam

D) None of the above

Answer below

Read more…

David Brancaccio of PBS’s Now show interviewed filmmaker Robert Kenner, the director of “Food, Inc.” a few days ago. The movie takes a very critical look at the modern food industry and helps viewers better understand why supermarket fare for the most part is crap, and why 67% of Americans are obese or overweight. The full interview is 24 minutes long. Here are some good tidbits:

1. 90% of supermarket food has corn or soy products in it. (That’s because soy and corn are subsidized by the government, making them cheap to produce).

2. Fast food chains were the original drivers of the industrialization of food. McDonald’s is and has been for years the largest buyer of ground beef, pork, chicken, potatoes, and tomatoes in the US. And it will only work with suppliers than can provide a steady, uniform, reliable product 24/7/365. Real food doesn’t work like that

3. Candy and Soda are cheaper than fresh fruit and vegetables. What do you think poor people will choose to eat?

4. Food industry claims that consumers should show personal responsibility when choosing what to eat are insidious.

5. Food has not gotten safer over the years. Not if a single burger can have meat from one thousand cows in it.

6. Really sad – the federal government does not have the right to recall contaminated meat off of supermarket shelves.

7. A ray of light – consumers, through personal preference, convinced Wal-Mart to switch to milk from cows who did not receive growth hormones.

8. Watch out for “food libel laws” – Industry will sue you if you don’t talk nice about food products. Example: Oprah Winfrey was engaged in a lengthy legal battle with the meat industry for saying she’d consider abstaining from burgers at the height of the mad cow scare a decade ago.

9. The legal fees for the movie were 3 times higher than all his previous films combined.

What to do at the supermarket:

Your choices are what ultimately fuel the food industry. By buying unprocessed foods, mostly from the supermarket perimeter, you will avoid many of the pitfalls of modern industrialized food-like substances.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com

The USDA has announced a recall by Nestle / Stouffer’s of the following Three Lean Cuisine products:
*  9.5-ounce packages of “LEAN CUISINE PESTO CHICKEN WITH BOW TIE PASTA” brand frozen meals.
* 10.5-ounce packages of “LEAN CUISINE CHICKEN MEDITERRANEAN” brand frozen meals.
* 12.5-ounce packages of “LEAN CUISINE CHICKEN TUSCAN” brand frozen meals.

The problem was discovered after the company received consumer complaints and a report of one injury. The company identified the objects as small pieces of hard plastic.

Here are the full details.

Lean Cusine Chicken Mediterranean

Lean Cuisine Chicken Tuscan

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

flickr photo: Zed.Cat

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a public health alert:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2008 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert due to concerns about illness caused by Salmonella that may be associated with raw, frozen, breaded and pre-browned, stuffed chicken entrees.

Read the entire alert…

What you need to know:

Salmonella is a nasty food borne bacteria that can be life threatening, but most people suffer from a few days of fever, stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. Fully cooking poultry is the best way to reduce your risk. Microwave ovens do not do the trick.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you are planning to microwave your chicken dinner, make sure the package contains instructions on how to do so. Meals meant for the microwave are usually precooked.

Food Label. Source: FDA

Ever since the FDA’s Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) was enacted in the early 1990’s, food package labels have been a battleground between the food industry and consumer interest groups. While the former try to limit the disclosures, the latter want more information to be available to the public.

In 2004, Congress has required food manufacturers to clearly state whether a product contains any of the eight most common food allergens, in simple English, for example “This product contains Milk”, not whey or casein. In 2005, companies were required to start labeling fish and shellfish .

The latest round in the battle for more information revolves around COOL – Country of Origin Labeling. The USDA believes people want to know where their beef comes from, especially when third world countries with less food safety regulations are involved. But food industry representatives have been claiming that this kind of information system is too costly and difficult to implement.

Here’s the story from CNNMoney:

Under the federal mandate, supermarkets, large grocery stores and wholesale clubs must let consumers know where staples like beef, chicken, pork, lamb, vegetables and fruit come from. The law, part of the 2008 Farm Bill passed this summer, takes effect at the end of next month. more..

What you need to know:

If you prefer to support US farmers, or are worried about the safety level of foods coming from other countries, or think that flying fruit over from Chile is a environmentally wrong, the COOL label can help you make a more informed decision.

What to look for at the Supermarket:

Starting in October, look for the new information, either printed on the food label or added as a sticker.