Pretoria - Dawn Connell’s son lived in the UK for some years where he routinely bought frozen chicken portions, which he cooked at low heat for a long time until they were soft and tasty, and then used the flesh to make sandwiches or quick meals.
“Having returned to South Africa, he bought a 2kg pack of frozen chicken portions, and cooked them the way he did overseas,” Dawn told Consumer Watch.
“But he was astounded when he took the dish out of the oven – the pieces were swimming in a watery, oily liquid.
“He then weighed the pieces and discovered that they were very slightly over 1kg.
“Do you think the company is injecting their frozen chicken with water?”
Welcome to the wonderful world of IQF chicken in South Africa. Individually quick frozen portions.
It’s a huge industry in South Africa – IQF products make up about 60 percent of total retail chicken, but unlike in many other countries, there is no legislation controlling the percentage of brine which may be injected into the pieces.
Sadly, that’s tantamount to an invitation to exploit.
The poultry industry argues that the practice is primarily intended to make frozen chicken more succulent; that without the injection of brine – mostly water – the cooked product would be dry.
But clearly in South Africa, where the addition of about 30 percent of brine appears to be the norm – creating those apparently giant frozen pieces in the 2kg or 1.8 packs – the prime purpose is to make the product “more affordable”.
Generally, the words “make more affordable” mean “trick you into thinking you’re getting more than you actually are”, or “trick you into thinking that what you’re buying is the cheaper option”.
For example, those new “mini” toilet rolls are said to be “more affordable”.
Yes, you pay less than you would for a “standard” pack of two-ply toilet rolls, but you’re getting a pack of 200-sheet rolls, instead of 350-sheet rolls, and if you do the maths you’ll realise that these “more affordable” toilet rolls are the most expensive ones on the market.
When companies redesign their packaging to make the pack slightly smaller, in the hope you won’t notice, they’ll say – when questioned – that it’s to make the product more affordable; and that failure to downsize the pack would have meant that the price of the original pack would have gone up substantially.
So instead, they do us a “favour” by allowing us to pay less, and get less.
The IQF chicken phenomenon is yet another version of the “more affordable” con.
Your nice, plump pieces of chicken release most of that injected brine during the cooking process, leaving you with far less meat, and a lot of watery stuff.
Expensive water.
If the industry wasn’t excessively injecting IQF chicken with brine, it would have to cost more, we’re told.
But at least it would be an honest product. And if you do the maths, you’ll find that if you account for the fact that “cheap” IQF chicken pieces are about 30 percent water, unadulterated frozen chicken pieces, or even fresh ones, are not all that much more expensive, if at all, in some cases.
Here’s the thing – consumers do not like being duped.
I get a steady stream of e-mails from people who’ve worked out the IQF con and are outraged.
Shane Harms made the discovery in the Pick n Pay Hyper in Steeldale last month.
“I saw a 1.8kg pack of frozen chicken on special and noticed the labelling: 70 percent chicken and 30 percent brine, brine being a mixture of water and salt.
“I, together with a manager, took the product and a 2kg pack of house-brand chicken, and weighed them.
“The weights displayed on the scale were the weights printed on the packs, which leads to some interesting conclusions.
“Let’s take the 1.8kg pack: 70 percent chicken works out to 1.26kg and 30 percent brine to 540g.
“So we are actually paying R26.95 for 1.26kg of chicken, not 2kg. It also means that we pay about R8 for the brine.
“Who in South Africa wants to pay this much for saltwater? If the industry thinks this is fair then we as the consumer are really being taken for a ride.”
That’s just the point.
Most of those who buy these products don’t realise that almost a third of what they’re buying is added water, despite the fact that suppliers now have to declare the presence of the brine on their labels.
Harms wrote to Pick n Pay about this matter, and received this response: “Please note that it is currently industry norm for frozen chicken portions to be brine-injected.
“The percentage of brine injected is not regulated on portions but it is mandatory that the percentage of chicken and brine be indicated on the label, which in this case has been labelled.
“I trust that this answers your query.”
At least, thanks to the food labelling regulations which finally became effective last March, the manufacturers have to tell us how much brine has been added to their chicken.
But as recent foreign and local meat stories have revealed, we cannot trust all labels to accurately reveal what’s in the product.
Six months ago the department of health warned consumers that some IQF products were being incorrectly labelled.
The labels failed to inform consumers that brine – “comprising water and salt, as well as food additives such as thickeners and flavourants” – had been injected into the portions, the department said.
Well, yes, I would imagine that the word “injected” is not one that most suppliers would want to splash on their labels.
Consumers are unlikely to find the idea of that too appealing.
“The department is further concerned that in some instances the percentage of brine added to the portions is as high as 30 percent, of which 29 percent is water,” the department said.
This excessive dilution reduces the nutritional content of the chicken – both protein and overall kilojoule count – while greatly increasing the salt content.
That’s a shocking combination, considering that IQF chicken is mainly consumed by the poorest South Africans.
As a local cardiovascular physiologist pointed out to me in 2011, having just discovered why his wife’s food tasted so salty when she used IQF chicken: “As a health professional, I would never advise any person to purchase IQF chicken, because apart from the rip-off, black South Africans suffer from high blood pressure of the salt-sensitive type”.
The encouraging news is that the government is taking steps to reduce the amount of brine which can legally be added to IQF chicken.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has drafted changes to the Agricultural Product Standards Act aimed at reducing the total weight of brine in chicken to just 4 percent, a single-digit dilution being considered to be a level which is more about ensuring meat succulence than consumer deception.
Another practice that is not illegal is “reworking” frozen chicken portions, particularly ones imported from countries such as Brazil.
Local suppliers thaw them, sometimes trim them to fit in with local portion sizes, then inject them with the excessively high proportion of brine – the South African way – then refreeze them before sending them forth into supermarket freezers.
Thanks to those labelling regulations, the country of origin has to be declared on labels.
The bottom line is, as always, read the labels carefully. If you’re buying IQF chicken, look for the brine percentage and choose the lowest you can find.
Or you may want to avoid them altogether until an appropriate brine limit is legislated. - Pretoria News