Chicken injected with beef waste sold in UK

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Muslims and Jews conned into eating meat bulked out with cow and pig products

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

 

 

Thursday, 4 June 2009

 

 

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Cafes and restaurants across Britain have been selling chicken secretly injected

with beef and pork waste, The Independent can reveal today.

 

 

In a hi-tech fraud run by firms in three EU states, food manufacturers are

making bulking agents out of porcine and bovine gristle and bones that help

inflate chicken breasts, so that they fetch a higher price.

 

The swindle was only detected by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) using new

scientific techniques because the non-chicken material had been so highly

processed it passed standard DNA tests

 

Thousands of restaurateurs and cafe owners are likely to have been conned into

buying chicken containing the powder - which binds water into chicken breasts -

while diners have been unwittingly consuming traces of other animals when eating

out.

Britain's two million Muslims, Jews and Hindus are forbidden from eating either

pork or beef. Muslims would ordinarily eat halal chicken and Jews kosher chicken

sold through approved caterers and butchers.

 

The Hindu Forum of Britain described news of the adulteration, which will be

confirmed publicly today, as " shocking and potentially very distressing " . Its

secretary general, Bharti Tailor, said: " Eating beef is expressly forbidden

because cows are considered to be sacred as they are a representation of the

bounty of the gods, even unknowingly. The fact that the protein powders injected

into chickens served in restaurants and cafes contain even traces of beef or

pork is horrific. And [the fact] that Hindus will have been eating beef

contaminated chickens will be mentally agonising. Many will feel that they have

broken their religious code of conduct. "

 

The food regulator acknowledged the serious consequences of its findings. " Use

of these proteins does not make chicken products unsafe, but it is important

that people are given accurate information about their food, " the FSA said.

 

The fraud has been taking place for at least the past two years, and still

continues because of inaction by the authorities in three EU states, believed to

be Germany, Netherlands and Spain.

 

The European Commission rebuffed British demands to ban beef and pork proteins

from being added to chicken when first detected in the UK and Ireland in 2001

and 2003. Then, action was taken against a chicken company in the Netherlands

and the authorities thought the problem had gone away.

 

When complaints began to surface again last year, the FSA launched a secret

investigation to ascertain whether chicken - the most eaten meat in the UK - was

being adulterated again. At first, scientists could not find any non-chicken

protein because the meat had been " de-natured " (made unrecognisable). The

Central Science Laboratory in York and York University developed special DNA

market tests.

 

" It's like Olympic drug tests; they stay one step ahead of the testers, " said a

source close to the investigation.

 

Manufacturers in Germany and Spain are thought to be making the protein powders;

Dutch firms inject them into chickens sold on to UK wholesalers supplying the

catering trade.

 

Using a new DNA marker technique, the FSA tested five protein powders from three

companies. All five were found to contain a non-poultry material identified as

bovine collagen. Further tests found the presence of porcine material in two

powders.

 

Tests picked up traces of beef in one of three chicken breasts.

 

In a report passed to The Independent, the FSA noted: " The study of a small

number of injection powders used in chicken breast products has indicated the

presence of undeclared, mammalian peptides, i.e., from a non-poultry source in

the samples analysed. The analyses applied indicate the presence of bovine

collagen in all the powders sampled and suggest the presence of porcine collagen

in some of the powders. "

 

It added: " Certification accompanying the powders claim they are produced only

from a poultry source, however, the analytical results suggest this claim could

not be substantiated. "

 

Manufacturers can legally add water to chicken, for instance to improve

succulence, but must declare water content of above 5 per cent. Fresh chicken

meat sold by supermarkets or butchers cannot have any added ingredients. When

the FSA alerted its continental counterparts, the factories involved were

inspected but no legal action has been taken.

 

Some chicken products state on the label whether they contain hydrolised

(chicken) proteins. The FSA advised consumers that they " may wish " to avoid such

chicken. " If you are eating food from a restaurant or takeaway you should ask if

the chicken served contains hydrolysed animal proteins, " the FSA will say today.

" Restaurants and catering establishments will have this information available to

them. "

 

Sue Davies, chief policy adviser at the consumer group Which?, said: " It's bad

enough that when you think you're buying chicken what you're paying for is an

awful lot of water and other animal proteins but if you want to avoid beef or

pork for religious reasons it's going to be particularly shocking and annoying.

There's a need for better enforcement action, or people will carry on doing

this. "

 

Religious views: Sacred products

 

Judaism

 

Jews are forbidden from eating pork as pigs are considered unclean animals. The

Jewish dietary laws are the laws of kashrut (keeping kosher). Hence food in

accord with Jewish law is termed kosher, food not in accord is treifah or treif.

 

Hinduism

 

Observant Hindus who eat meat almost always abstain from beef. The cow is sacred

and beef has been forbidden in the Hindu religion and diet. Hindu society

honours the cow and cow-slaughter is banned legally in almost Indian states. The

largely pastoral Vedic people and subsequent generations relied heavily on it

for dairy products and tilling the fields.

 

Islam

 

Muslims are prohibited from eating pork products. All meat must come from a

herbivorous animal slaughtered and bled to death in the name of God by a Muslim,

Jew or Christian, with the exception of game that one has hunted or fished for

oneself. Food permissible for Muslims is known as halal food.

 

Protein problems: Contaminated chicken

 

2001

 

The Food Standards Agency finds chicken with as little as 54 per cent meat and

undeclared protein. The FSA urges the Netherlands and Belgium to tackle

exporters.

 

2003

 

The FSA and the Food Safety Agency of Ireland find beef and pork in Dutch

chicken. The FSAI warns that the EU and the Dutch are failing to police

labelling rules. The European Commission rejects a call to ban beef and pork

proteins, saying the matter is " primarily an infringement of food labelling

legislation " .

 

2004-2007

 

No new surveys on chicken are published. Many believe the problem has gone away.

 

2008

 

FSA investigates new allegations, but pork and beef cannot be detected by

conventional DNA tests as it has been " de-natured " (rendered unidentifiable from

its origins).

 

2009

 

Test results are obtained by The Independent.

 

 

 

 

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