Ecobreves – CHILE: Watery and Salty Chicken

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Oct 28 2006 (IPS) - Chile's consumer protection organization ODECU charged on Oct. 23 that chicken meat sold domestically had high quantities of water and too much salt, an ingredient that is harmful to the health of the two million Chileans who suffer hypertension. ODECU urged the authorities to modify the food regulations that allow 12 percent of chicken to be water, by weight, which according to its estimates generates annual profits of nearly 95 million dollars for the poultry industry.

“We demand that they produce chicken without salt and that the Health Ministry establish a methodology to measure the water level of the meat,” ODECU expert in the area, Omar Pérez, told Tierramérica.

The labels of the four main brands in Chile state that 100 grams of chicken meat contain between 255 and 395 milligrams of sodium.