TIL chicken sold in supermarkets are often "plumped" with a salt water solution to increase sell weight, making up as much as 30% of the total weight, and can contain up to 500mg of sodium per serving

I remember growing up seeing Foster Farms commercials saying they don't do this. It was the main theme of nearly all their ads.

When I was a teenager, I got a job at the local Foster Farms plant. My job was part of the process of injecting the chicken with saline. 😬

Mandatory "in the US".

While this one is technically legal in the EU, it would require labeling the salty water as an ingredient if it changes the weight significantly.

In the US they do. In Canada it's illegal.

And basically all frozen chicken in US stores has been pumped full of brine. That includes raw chicken parts that look otherwise unprocessed.

They also do this to beef, pork, and a bunch of other meats in the US. The higher water content is part of the reason preservation methods don't work as well.

For instance, trying to make Jerry out of water injected beef means you have to dry out the added water in addition to what was in the meat to start with, and you can't use the post drying weight to calculate if it is dry enough.

Plus poking the holes to add the water is one more vector for bacteria...

Great way to cheat the customer and also ruin recipes that don't take into consideration that cups of salt water will come out while cooking the chicken.

... in the US.

Not in sane places, it doesn't.

Also to help packaging n shelf life. Chicken production and processing facilities are both morally and biologically disgusting.

Well... Not really in Denmark. At least not salt water.

Packaging on chicken often has it written on the from if there is any water inside, and if I'm not mistaken, it's not allowed to exceed a certain percentage.

There may be reasons why people might specifically want to buy chicken with water inside, so some supermarkets here sell both, one that has an statement on the amount of water inside, and another that will say "ikke tilsat vand".

In Norway, chicken without added salt and water has become the norm after producers were made to inform how much of each is added. Also, one of the triopol groceries here has wholly switched from Ross chickens, so that is a good trend for animal welfare.

same with prepacked bacon. fuck you foster farms.

There should be a class action lawsuit against Tyson and Perdue,.etc. We pay by the pound for chicken, not saltwater.

I moved to Portugal last year and I can say that the supermarket chicken here does need a lot more seasoning (to my taste) than US chicken did. I am hoping it will help cut down my overall salt intake.

Same for many meats. Red meats are often sealed with O2 to appear redder.or "fresher" than was natural, for many extra days on the shelf.

Meat not from a butcher is usually the lowest quality and actually more expensive considering the liquid weights.

I can cook a whole packed pan of chicken wings (on top of each other) and when they are done there is 3 inches of space between them and a huge pool of liquid in the drip pan. It's insane how much they can inject in them.

People didn't know this?

Almost all meat you buy at the supermarket has brine. Even things like ground beef.

Also meat glue.

This doesn't happen with seitan. Which is cheaper, healthier, and has about double the protein.

There are valid reasons to brine a chicken, this is just an extreme way to do so. The salt affects how muscle proteins behave during cooking, partially it prevents them contracting too much, thus in turn preventing the muscles from squeezing out so much liquid that they become dry. lower temperature cooking for a longer time can achieve the same effect and won’t dilute the flavor of the chicken.

Any reasonable step of preparation like brining poultry can be taken too far or done excessively, especially by companies seeking to maximize shareholder value by selling as little product as possible for the highest price. pre-brining chicken isn’t always bad, but it’s not always what you want.

Hmmm capitalism.

Not just chicken, basically anything that says "VALUE ADDED" on it. The saltwater is the value.

Buy meat at the butcher's

this is what got the wife and I to start gettin organic which dod not seem to get the injections. Normal chicken was so bad my wife started callin it frankenchicken. We have noticed they must have backed off a bit as we have gotten it once or twice on extreme loss leader sales and it was not quite as bad as we remember. Still the organic seems better and the cost is offset by actually getting meat instead of water.

And if they add caramel, they can advertise it as salted caramel chicken! I mean, why not? Everything else is salted caramel. Disgusting stuff.

Hard to believe 500 milligrams of sodium has no taste. I've boiled lots of chicken and theres never been enough salt to taste in it without I add a lot

Depending on product injecting salt water is necessary - one reason is to form it into nice shape, the other is to inhibit bacteria that could produce botulin toxin in the product.

Air chilled chicken does not have the same brine issue. I've only ever seen it sold as organic, but it is worth it to avoid the brine issues.

Air chilled chicken FTW

I’d definitely like to identify ones that have not been - these days it can be a challenge to sear chicken on the stovetop because of all the water.

They do that to help the poultry get frozen

vegetableatarian

Yeah it's just brining. 30% and 500mg is crazy though. My local supermarket (and I checked-also walmart) value pack of chicken is 2% and about 50mg sodium per serving, which is pretty negligible. And it does make the chicken jucier.

Soylent Red when?

At least chicken is salt brined, ready for owen.

I wonder if even with the sodium the value still exceeds that of roasting a whole $20 chicken for hours.

At $6.99 I highly doubt it. That's $2.33/lb

Costco sells me hot rotisserie chickens for US$5, they can put salt, MSG, sugar, whatever they want in it. That shit is cheap and good.

Yup! Though if you shop around you can avoid it and some chains, like Trader Joe's, tend to include less as far as I can tell (except recently with those big breasts of theirs?). Not even that much more expensive but definitely a jump in quality. A Sprouts nearby also has fantastic chicken.

I've been meaning to visit the carnecerias near me, though. Getting meat at any specialized store tends to cook better, anyway, but I'm a little shy since my Spanish is terrible and last time I tried they didn't speak English. Lots of pointing and gestures, lol.

I was talking about this is a thread last month and got downvoted and harassed for it by people who seem to think pre-made super market chickens were a great healthy way for poor people to get protein... people just refused to believe how unhealthy it was and that it was processed food and kept complaining how raw whole chickens were awful by comparison or something....

Pre seasoned! LOL. I'm vegan, so who cares. Except man, that really sucks for the chicken. I assume they get plumped as soon as they're dead. Such cruel faith.

I cook Costco Chicken to my kids. I think we all gotta make our own decision as we transition into veganism. Potatoes, mushrooms, tofu, etc give textures that rival meat. There's no real reason to continue eating meat except for not knowing what can nutritionally replace it. Since it contains key nutrients you must have a plan in place. I'm figuring it all out as I go and maybe my kids will follow. At least we should go back to a time where meats are for special days.

Are we complaining about pre-brined chicken?