July 23, 2009

Just Chicken, Please!

I went to the grocery store this morning, something I do almost every morning (Its just part of the walking Brooke and I like to do around 7AM, since not much is open that early outside of Starbucks and the grocery store). Anyway, I decided we would have chicken for dinner, so I went to the meat section to get some. Every single package of chicken said "with rib meat" on it ... pretty visibly. I havent bought chicken in a while, but I know for sure the last time I did that all of the chicken either 1) didnt have rib meat or 2) just wasnt marked this clearly. So now I am wondering how much rib meat I have been eating! I am assuming that there must have been a new requirement to state the rib meat inclusion, not that every package now includes something it never did in the past.

I looked at every single package and finally settled on this one, the only one I could find that didnt say it had rib meat in it. Then I came home and did some research. I cant find anything about a new law/requirement to visibly state the rib meat inclusion. But I did find a lot of bad stuff about chicken ... specifically the "plumping" issue. I'm sure you all already know about this (since I tend not to pay a lot of attention to what I am eating) but I thought I would share in case I am not the only one in the dark.

In Plumped Chickens: You Are Paying for Water on Mouse Print (a very awesome blog "focusing on an ad’s asterisked fine print footnote rather than the headline. It also examines the often overlooked small print on product labels and contracts.") you can find out more about all of the extra water and sodium thats pumped into chicken :(

1 comment:

Jess said...

Buying packaged chicken like that pretty much means you are buying "plumped" chicken. Buying it from a butcher or other meat exclusive distributor reduces that chance, and is cheaper. But...admittedly that is more time consuming.