Those 5 for €5 Chicken fillet offers..

IIMII

Saw Corrigans Farm last week and they showed meat being injected with 'gunk' to thicken it out, colour it etc.

Question I have is this. The 5 for €5 Chicken fillet offers you see in butchers like Gleesons in Blanch etc, are they 100% meat or are the 88%-ish + 12% 'gunk' in the way it was mentioned on another thread that Tesco meat can be?

How do you know when meat is meat and when it's only for example 88% meat?

billyhead

Me personally I owuld not but meat from anywhere unless it had bord bia approved printed on it. Otherwise you don't know where it is sourced from.

IIMII

Cheers. I was hoping that you were guaranteed 100% meat in butchers, but thinking about it, the Bord Bia labelling is probably the closest mark out there. BTW, does Bord Bia cover just 100% or also the 88% injected variety as well?

IIMII

Shopping Dunnes at the weekend and they had some excellent half price deals on chicken, all with the Bord Bia mark.

Just been reading up on the Bord Bia mark and chicken here:

http://www.bordbia.ie/aboutfood/quality/Pages/PoultryProductsQualityAssuranceScheme.aspx

Does anyone know if the Bord Bia mark means 100% or can it be injected with phosphates or whatever and still get the mark?

I'm just looking for some mark where it will clearly distinguish 100% 'pure' meat from the tampered with 88% variety.

Back to Gleesons again, I noticed yesterday that they sell whole chickens too without any labeling. Can it be presumed that their whole chickens have not been simlarly modified via additives to make them retain water?

rubadub

IIMII wrote: »

Can it be presumed that their whole chickens have not been similarly modified via additives to make them retain water?

No, it is very easy to do, in fact Nigella Lawson had a Christmas cookery program where she soaked a whole turkey overnight in cold water to get it to take on water and so not dry out.

AFAIK you do not have to declare water on ingredients list. Not certain but it seems to be unlisted on lots of stuff where it should be in there. So I think even if it says 100% chicken meat it could have added water. Frozen fish fillets do this on the pack, it will list 100% fish fillet and then some will divulge that 5% of the weight is ice. It is like those chicken burgers that say 100% chicken breast, meaning the meat used is 100% chicken breast, but the product itself is not.

My butcher does 10 fillets for €10, they come in packs of 25 and the packet says 100% chicken breast.

IIMII

Cheers rubadub. So may may as well eat what you get, it ain't nessessarily better anywhere else.. Pity, it would be great to buy chicken knowing that you are buying an untampered-with piece of meat