YSK chicken sold in supermarkets are often "plumped" with a salt water solution that increases sell weight by up to 30%. A serving can contain up to 500mg of sodium, or 7-10 times what is natural.

Here is a short that tells of what's going here. This short is also a reaction, from an independent farmer who farms chickens. I think the creator here, FarmingWhileBeige, offers a lot of good insight into what is bad and not bad in our current farming practices as a level headed not batshit crazy maga person.

Here in Denmark how much water is in the chicken is written on the label of the packaging. It is also required to list what ingredients are used to treat the chicken if anything besides water is used.

This makes the chicken taste better too.

I guess i can cut back to four chickens a day

Also, at least in my area, I believe there is a mislabeling scam going on. At least twice now I have bought boneless skinless chicken thighs from 2 different grocery stores (different chains) and the weight has been like ~15% lower than advertized.

Like a package of chicken thighs labeled at 3.11lbs (1.4kg) actually weighed roughly 2.67lbs (1.2kg), 14% less. One labeled at 2.49lbs (1.13kg) actually weighed roughly 2.1lbs (0.95kg), 16% less.

Some of that may be accounted for by the absorbant pad sucking out some of that excess liquid they pump in, but it shouldn't be so radically different

Ehh, a restaurant would salt it past there anyway. Culinarily, you'd be well within reason to brine fresh chicken.

Price per pound is pretty bullshit thought, making it cost at the price if meat is BS

As someone with POTS, I for one am okay with sodiummaxxing 😎

This is a good example of using technically true facts to imply something that isn't actually representative.

Yes, some chicken is sold with an added salt-water solution. That's not a secret it's disclosed right on the label. But presenting the maximum legal numbers as if they apply to all supermarket chicken is misleading.

"Up to 30%" is the ceiling, not the average. Likewise, "up to 500 mg of sodium" describes heavily enhanced products, not ordinary chicken. Plenty of chicken is sold with no added solution at all, and consumers can choose whichever they prefer simply by reading the packaging.

This post also frames the added solution as though it's some kind of deceptive adulteration. In reality, it's added to improve moisture retention and consistency during cooking, and it's regulated and clearly labeled.

So the takeaway isn't "supermarkets are secretly selling watered-down chicken." The takeaway is much less dramatic: read the label. If you want unenhanced chicken, buy unenhanced chicken. If you don't mind the added solution, buy the enhanced product. Manufacturing practices are not evidence of a conspiracy just because someone cherry-picked the largest numbers they could find.

Look for "air-chilled chicken" to find chicken that doesn't have this.

Also some organic brands don't do this because of the laws around chemical use making chlorine not possible. Brands vary, though.

Farmers markets are another route.

I've seen people getting upset about this. I'm only upset because I have kidney issues and have to watch my sodium and meat really fucks me when it comes to sodium content.

So just the same as adding water to milk

Why is this even legal?

Lol it's called a brine

Jesus christ.

Is this legal in the EU?

Buy halal meats. Or from an actual butcher.

Here in the EU, I just looked at some packed chicken. It's marinated, but still: the ingredients say it contains only 87% actual chicken meat, then water, then salt. 13% marinade seems a bit much. It's not swimming in sauce. Not sure if it's been plumped too.

It's a truism that all sorts of industrially produced & packaged meat shrink when you cook/fry it.

It would be interesting to know what the leagl situation is around here. I checked wikipedia and it refers only to the USA.

Also ham and almost all boiled and reconstituted meats.

I'd also add that if you cook those plumped up chicken breasts, they will immediately release all that extra brine into your dish and ruin it. Buy normal-size chicken breasts and resist the urge to go for the "best" weight to price ratio.

This is done to avoid botulin toxin from being formed. It's a much, much bigger issue than the sodium intake

Common with red meat also.

I bought a cheaper brand of meat than usual earlier this year. It was so wobbly it could have been a pillow in a water bed. Needless to say the cooked meat was salty but otherwise tasteless with a consistency of pre chewed porridge.

This is why you want to look for "air-chilled" when it comes to chickens. Aside from paying more for a higher sodium product, you'll get better browning on your meat with air-chilled.

This is why I don't buy chicken from costco. Thankfully theres a good provider (Sunrise Farms) from Richmond on the Lower Mainland that makes a frozen skinless, boneless breat that's cheaper than Costco, cooks to nearly the same size it started as the water content is low, and is semi-local to Vancouver Island.

Eat less meat and buy Quality.If still undecided, a temporary job in a meatpack factory will be helpful.

this is some fearmongering. unless your diet is nothing but packaged foods, your sodium level is always gonna be under the RDA, and sodium is necessary for your body to function. going low-sodium is more dangerous than going over the RDA for the average person.

chicken breast

ingredients: 86,7 % chicken

Chicken sold in supermarkets in America

I fixed the headline for you

Just stop eating meat. I did that 15 years ago. Meat is unhealthy, bad for the climate, bad for the people working in the slaughterhouses… and most of all bad for the animal.

Americentrism! You strike again!

That shit is illegal in EU

Let's call it 500mg instead of a half gram because big numbers are always scarier.

This is old news and new studies show high salt doesn't cause high blood pressure.

Doctor's have been putting other on low sodium diets for decades and have been unsuccessful in managing patients blood pressure, and most people that go in blood pressure meds and low sodium diets will stay on blood pressure meds due life.

Doctor's targeting the root cause of high blood pressure like lowering the patients blood sugar and insult levels have reverse patients high blood pressure and get them off meds.

High blood pressure is caused by high insulin levels, not high salt.

I always check the labels for this because I grew up seeing those Foster Farms commercials that would bring this factoid up all the time. Foster Farms does also do this, tho. They just do it with their "cheap" brands that don't use the "Foster Farms" name.

Here in the US I avoid Aldi meat for this very reason. Plenty of good products at aldi... But the meat is terrible.

The carnist brain is a dumb brain.

https://lemmy.world/c/vegan

Happy 2nd cake day James 🎂🍻 !

Yeah, but it tastes good.

yeah this was the first thing we switched over I think grocery wise. Basically your paying for water and the organic is better if its up to 2x the price.

Does this also work on cocks?

So is this dick but I still get called small peen.

YSK chicken sold in farmer's markets has often been "plumped" by a farmer's penis, and injected with a salty solution as well.

lol, I love all the people downvoting me with no idea how many chickens I've fucked. So disgusting that you eat that.