OK, so I’ve
mentioned before how fed up I am that so many chicken products are made using
poultry that isn’t British. (Read the most recent of these rants here)
But I struggle to understand why so much chicken from sources such as Thailand
and Brazil is still used in food manufacture.
Supermarkets
rallied a little following last year’s horsemeat scandal. The amount of fresh
meat sourced from the UK rose, be it somewhat slowly in some stores, and many
beef products, such as lasagne and pies started to be made using British Beef.
However,
many chicken dishes sold in supermarkets are still not produced using British
chicken, or even chicken sourced within the EU. Sainsburys’ fresh kievs,
goujons etc are all made from British chicken, which is clearly stated on the
label. However their frozen ready meals use chicken from Thailand (even their
roast dinners that include a whole chicken breast) and Tesco frozen ready meals
also use chicken from Thailand and Brazil.
Of course,
you wouldn’t notice this at a glance. The chances are that you have been buying
these products without even realising the source of the chicken, as the finished
meals are actually produced in the UK. To check what you are buying you have to
read the small print on the back of the box, where the country of origin is
stated.
But at
least supermarket own brands are honest and state their sources, even if not in the most obvious place. Some of the big brand names that manufacture
frozen meals and meat products do not state the country of origin at all. I
have studied boxes produced by Sharwoods, Heinz Weightwatchers and the like,
but can find no mention of where their chicken has been sourced. In order for
us to make an informed choice as shoppers, we have a right to be provided with
all this information, and I therefore believe that it should be law to clearly
state the origin of a product’s main ingredients.
In the
meantime if I read that the chicken in a product is from Thailand or Brazil,
then I don’t buy it. If a product does not state its country of origin, then I
still don’t buy it. I want to know that all meat and poultry that I buy in any
way, shape or form is British, not only so that it conforms with food safety standards,
but I don’t feel we should be importing such items from halfway across the
world. Think of the global footprint!
What do you
think?
Follow me
on Twitter @shoppersjoy
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