Chicken Labels – What You Need to Know
Chicken Labels – What You Need to Know
Last week addressed some of the misleading labels found on eggs.
Chicken has a lot of similar labels that are misleading. Usually, the information is entirely accurate but still misleading.
Take this example:
My husband and I went to MIT and Harvard. Yes, the one in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We did – 100% true.
We didn't attend and were not enrolled in either school. On a trip, we visited the MIT campus, then took the T over to Harvard Square and visited that campus.
Entirely true and potentially misleading, especially if I didn’t follow up that it was a visit on a trip rather than being enrolled at either school. We did “go to” both schools.
Front of the package nutrition labels are often like this. I did a series on Deconstructing Food Labels in January 2022. Part 3 – Tricky Front of the Package Claims included misleading yet valid claims.
Like eggs, chicken has similar claims such as free-range, no antibiotics – ever, natural, no hormones, no steroids, vegetarian-fed, non-GMO, gluten-free, minimally processed, etc. It is exhausting sometimes.
Are there some you should pay attention to and others you can ignore? Totally.
Minimally Processed
Minimally process means that the processors process the chicken in a manner that does not fundamentally alter the product.
I want my chicken processed. I do not want to deal with the beheading, gutting, and removing of the feet and feathers.
I also appreciate the boneless and skinless varieties but can still handle those items.
This would all still mean the chicken is minimally processed.
But this also means that there are no flavorings added – such as marinade, seasoning, or saline solution.
Natural Chicken
Once again, the term "natural" is loosely defined in the United States. I have previously mentioned this but will add it again here:
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they consider "the term 'natural' to mean nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in or added to a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food."
Natural chicken can have some added flavoring if it is natural flavoring (like salt/saline solution).
Natural is one of the more frustrating terms on food labels because plenty of foods, even highly processed foods, can legally use this term.
I suggest ignoring this one.
No Hormones and No Steroids?
People say that chickens today are "pumped full of hormones."
I am not sure where they get their information, but this is not true.
As I have previously stated: animals have hormones. FACT. You can't get an animal food without hormones because they are naturally part of being an animal. And a plant.
You will likely see it on many chicken labels: No Added Hormones. But you will also see an asterisk – it is required to be there (again, like on eggs):
*Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in poultry.
Because one chicken producer will put “No Added Hormones” on the package, other producers will follow. Why? Because if someone sees the "No Added Hormones" on the package label but not on the other brand, even when BOTH have no added hormones (by law), the consumer assumes that the one without this label or disclaimer DOES have added hormones.
And saying "no steroids" is redundant because steroids are hormones. So, all that about no added hormones is still true with steroids.
Why are chickens so much bigger now than in decades past if no added hormones or steroids are allowed? Breeding. Breeding bigger chickens will lead to bigger birds.
No Antibiotics – again.
Once again, as I have stated in both the egg post and in the antibiotics in our food post, farmers will treat a sick animal with antibiotics. Still, they will not be part of the chicken slaughter for food until they clear any antibiotic residues. It's the law.
Cage-Free and Free-Range Chickens
Like with eggs, the terms sound like a good thing. However, people have assumptions about what these terms mean that may not be accurate.
Cage-free chickens are not in cages, but this does not equal lots of space. It still may be a lot of chickens in a confined space.
Cages can protect the birds from predators. I know people who have lost chickens to hawks, bears, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, and even domesticated dogs. Even in a cage, these predators are crafty and can still get in.
Cages are not always a bad thing. And free-range sounds nice, but for the same reason as the cages may be better, free-range birds are at risk of being killed by predators and what they eat is beyond the farmer's control.
Other Terms:
Vegetarian Fed – like humans, chickens are omnivores. They eat both plant matter and animals. They eat bugs, worms, and small animals like mice if available. But if it is essential to someone that the chicken, they eat be fed a vegetarian diet, then OK. I find this confusing. A vegetarian-fed chicken would also suggest that the chickens are not free-roaming since they will naturally eat things they see when roaming outside (or inside).
Non-GMO – the chickens themselves are non-GMO always because chickens are not something that goes through this process. They are not a GMO food – period. But some people want this, and farmers will provide it: chickens whose diet is non-GMO. I have previously covered What Foods Are GMO, and some GMO crops, including corn, soybean, canola, and cotton, are often used for animal feed.
Gluten-Free – even if a chicken does have a diet with wheat, barley, or rye (the only grains that have gluten), that component doesn't go into the bird's muscle. This idea would suggest that if the chicken eats a worm, the meat has worm in it. That isn't how it works. With this kind of logic, if a human eats chicken, somehow their muscle is now part chicken? No. A gluten-free diet in a chicken is acceptable, but that doesn't mean much to us as humans. It is irrelevant even for people with celiac disease.
Don’t be fooled when it comes to the labels on packages of chicken – most of it is marketing and nothing more.
