Have you noticed a change in the consistency of the
chicken you buy at the grocery store, meat markets or with the chicken served
at restaurants? Over the past year my
family has noticed that the consistency of the chicken has changed. It is harder to chew and has a very different
consistency; a consistency that is difficult to explain. I almost want to say that it is a little like
gristle or as Sarah, one of my childcare providers, stated that chicken is “difficult
to cut and is almost stringy”. The
change in the consistency of chicken made my husband and I ask a few
questions. It also confirmed that we
should spend a little more money to buy a better quality of chicken.
What is up with the chicken bought today? When you buy skinless, boneless chicken
breasts, do you ever think about how big they are and the size of the chicken
that they must have come from? According to Phillip Clauer, a senior instruct at Penn
State Extension, “an average broiler (chicken) . . . reaches 5 pounds (live
weight) in 5 weeks. At the desired
weight, a company catching crew will catch and load the birds onto trucks to be
transported to the processing plant”. (1) Did you catch that? The chicken on the store shelves are only
about 5 weeks old. What is in that
chicken feed to make that chicken grow that big and that fast?
Most of the feed used is “medicated but organic and pastured small farms
will often use unmedicated feed”. Meat
birds are fed “high-protein feeds and is sometimes called
"grower-finisher" instead”. (2)
The poultry grower finisher (chicken feed) sold at Tractor Supply consists
of the following ingredients. It has a “high energy content and quality protein. The ingredient are crude protein, lysine, methionine,
crude fat, crude fiber, calcium, phosphorus, salt, and selenium”. Is it just the food that makes a chicken grow
to 5 pounds in 5 weeks or is it something in addition to the feed?
The Gerber chicken that
we buy from a local Amish Meat Market is smaller in size and is tender. It is much different in consistency from what
is bought in the grocery stores, other meat markets or sold at restaurants. On the package of Gerber chicken on the
bottom left it states
All Natural Boneless
Skinless Chicken Breasts with Rib Meat
Minimally processed. No artificial ingredients. Less than 5% retained water.
Federal regulations
prohibit the use of hormones in chicken.
On the top left of the Gerber chicken package
is states
100% Vegetarian Diet
NO Antibiotics EVER
No By-Products
No Hormones
Nothing Added
I would have to conclude that what the
chicken is fed and given has something to do with the consistency of the
chicken? Otherwise the Gerber Poultry Company
would not have to label the chicken this way, right? The chicken we eat from Gerber has a
vegetarian diet. Other chicken is fed crude protein, lysine, methionine, crude fat, and
crude fiber. Lysine and methionine are
amino acids which are building blocks for proteins. Therefore the chicken is being fed a lot of
protein, fat and fiber which is not a vegetarian diet.
The packaging for the
Gerber Chicken lists “NO Antibiotics EVER”.
Earlier in this post I mentioned that most chicken is being fed medicated
feed which includes antibiotics. It also lists no hormones or
by-products. So the 5 to 7 week old chickens
that are mass produced and sold at grocery stores and most meat markets must be
made up of
High protein, fat and
fiber diet including by-products
Medications including
antibiotics
And possibly hormones (even
though the label states that the federal
regulations
prohibit the use of hormones)
Is the concern only
with the consistency of the chicken? I
actually believe it is a little more than this.
Protein in our diet builds healthy muscle. If we have protein from a poor source, what
kind of muscle can it build in you? In your
children? Could this be producing some
of the sickness and disease that we have in America? Have you heard the saying, “you are what you
eat”? I think that what we feed our
bodies has the ability to produce sickness or health.
Dr. Pam Tomaszycki, D.C.
Bibliography
1. Clauer,
P. (2016). Modern Meat Chicken Industry (Poultry). Retrieved July 13, 2016,
from http://extension.psu.edu/animals/poultry/topics/general-educational-material/the-chicken/modern-meat-chicken-industry
2. Arcuri,
L. (n.d.). Types of Commercial Chicken or Poultry Feed. Retrieved July 13,
2016, from
http://smallfarm.about.com/od/chickens/a/Types-Of-Commercial-Chicken-And-Poultry-Feed.htm
