RE: 15% solution...mmm, originally uploaded by EmergencyDpt.

"hey Spencer,

Zim says 15% solution is a good thing. no really. he says if his chicken
doesn't come with 15% solution already there he puts it in.

K"

Thank you Zim for giving me a reason to do a little extra detective work.
After doing some reading I found out a few things about the practice of
adding up to 15% of an additive of salt water, carrageen (seaweed extract),
sodium phosphate (preservative, emulsifier, laxative), and "flavors", by
injection into the chicken carcass.

wikipedia:
"Adding sodium phosphates to food increases the shelf life of the food;
maintaining the texture and appearance of the food."

Damninteresting.com:
Trisodium Phosphate (aka Sodium Phosphate):
An ionic salt used as a thickener/emulsifier for foods, as well as common
uses as a degreaser, detergent, and laxative.

Anytime I see the food industry adding things I am suspicious about the
motive. If it has 15% by weight of a less expensive additive and charging
you the same then they are cutting the product to make more money. I
learned that from a cocaine dealer I met once.

One article in this newspaper:
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/07/28/business/072907bizchickenlabels
.txt states that Americans my be overcharged by 2 billion dollars in paying
for saltwater/ seaweed extract/ and chemicals instead of chicken. Also the
meat could have up to 7 times the normal sodium level. For someone with
high blood pressure, which is like ...everybody, that's a source of sodium
they may not be aware of.

Also in the above article: "The Truthful Labeling Coalition -- a Washington,
D.C.-based lobbying group funded by natural chicken producers -- say the use
of salt solution first occurred in 2003 after Bentonville-based Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. reportedly approached all the major U.S. chicken processors
about standardizing the packaged weight of fresh chicken to use one bar code
for like items."
"The coalition said in accordance with what the USDA allowed, processors
were told they could add up to 15 percent water solution to the chicken
under the guidelines."

So you are being charged for all that water and salt that has been injected
to more closely standardize packaging weights and increase the shelf life of
the product. And because all the ingredients are "natural" like salt and
seaweed, they can still call the bastardized chicken "100% all natural".

Our food supply is a double edged sword. For one thing it has allowed the
explosion of the US population by making an abundance of food available at
commodity prices. However the down side is that the food is often stripped
of its nutrition and has preservatives and sometimes food born illnesses
added to it. The way products like chicken are handled, en mass, allows
salmonella to become such a problem that it has become endemic. The
manufacturers rely on the consumer to deal with the problem by cooking it
away. In other words, it's guaranteed to have salmonella on it so slap a
'safe food handling label' on it and let them deal with it. Real chicken
and eggs shouldn't have salmonella in it! But if you take a thousand birds
an hour and boil the feathers off them in the same tank and then put the
same birds in a chilling tank together, one bad one will infect them all.
That could be the 'chicken broth' they use to inject the carcasses with for
all I know.

This has spurred me to look more closely at the labels on my food. It has
also made me understand the value of a cup of rice or other staple that is
nutritious and with a good dose of local bought veggies and beans can
replace the factory processed and 'mechanically separated' meat flavored
solid that they are selling at the supermarket. I will spend more time
buying and cooking fresh, local vegetables.