Poultry

Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog

Poultry – 4 December 2008

In her book Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry, Gail A. Eisnitz has this to say about poultry processing:

While European and Canadian poultry processors use air-chilling systems which reduce the risk of contamination, the U.S. poultry industry’s reliance on water chilling has remained strong – and for good reason. Federal regulations permit each carcass to soak up water – until 1997, as much as 8 percent water – during the chilling process. This in effect enables the industry to sell hundreds of millions of gallons of germ-filled water at poultry-meat prices. U.S. poultry consumers spend more than $1 billion on added water per year.

The red meat industry, envious of the poultry industry’s ability to sell water at meat prices, filed a lawsuit in 1994 against the USDA. (Retained water in beef carcasses is deemed a form of adulteration.) In July 1997, a federal judge ruled that the 8 percent water retention allowance in poultry was “arbitrary and capricious.” The USDA is currently considering a proposal that will set a 5 percent water retention standard for both poultry and red meat.

“With the advent of modern slaughter technologies,” said former USDA microbiologist Gerald Kuester, “there are about fifty points during processing where cross-contamination can occur. At the end of the line, the birds are no cleaner than if they had been dipped in a toilet.”

Just one more good reason to Go Vegan, right?!

For the book review of Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/book/r-slaughterhouse.html 

For great-tasting cruelty-free recipes, photos, and information, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes.html 

Also visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/video-chickens-turkeys.html
and
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/index.html 
 

Blog - Main Page
Archive - By Date
Archive - By Subject