USDA urged to apply limits to injected poultry products

Legislators and consumers are looking to heighten the awareness and response from the USDA over the amount of salt water that poultry processors are allowed to inject into poultry products and call them natural.

In a news conference in Washington, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., teamed up with Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Bill Mattos, the president of the California Poultry Federation.

“I have long fought to ensure that all consumer product labels are fair and truthful,” said Boxer. “Unfortunately, since 2003, chicken injected with sodium additives has been allowed to be misleadingly labeled as 100% all-natural. There is nothing ‘all-natural’ about chicken injected with sodium additives.”

The consumer advocates’ concern is that, when a sodium solution is injected, poultry meat’s inherent health benefits are diminished. Injected poultry products have a sodium content that offers up to 8 times more salt per serving than natural chicken that is not injected, an issue for consumers seeking to reduce the amount of salt in their diets, reports state.

The consumer advocates called on USDA to “immediately prevent sodium-injected chicken from using the ‘natural’ label,” Sen. Boxer said, and require all poultry producers to identify added ingredients, such as salted water, in larger print than is now required.

Source: Meatingplace