You Should Know

This is a good example of using technically true facts to imply something that isn't actually representative.

Yes, some chicken is sold with an added salt-water solution. That's not a secret—it's disclosed right on the label. But presenting the maximum legal numbers as if they apply to all supermarket chicken is misleading.

"Up to 30%" is the ceiling, not the average. Likewise, "up to 500 mg of sodium" describes heavily enhanced products, not ordinary chicken. Plenty of chicken is sold with no added solution at all, and consumers can choose whichever they prefer simply by reading the packaging.

This post also frames the added solution as though it's some kind of deceptive adulteration. In reality, it's added to improve moisture retention and consistency during cooking, and it's regulated and clearly labeled.

So the takeaway isn't "supermarkets are secretly selling watered-down chicken." The takeaway is much less dramatic: read the label. If you want unenhanced chicken, buy unenhanced chicken. If you don't mind the added solution, buy the enhanced product. Manufacturing practices are not evidence of a conspiracy just because someone cherry-picked the largest numbers they could find.

Eat less meat and buy Quality.If still undecided, a temporary job in a meatpack factory will be helpful.

Yeah, but it tastes good.

this is some fearmongering. unless your diet is nothing but packaged foods, your sodium level is always gonna be under the RDA, and sodium is necessary for your body to function. going low-sodium is more dangerous than going over the RDA for the average person.

This is done to avoid botulin toxin from being formed. It's a much, much bigger issue than the sodium intake

Here in the US I avoid Aldi meat for this very reason. Plenty of good products at aldi... But the meat is terrible.

Ehh, a restaurant would salt it past there anyway. Culinarily, you'd be well within reason to brine fresh chicken.

Price per pound is pretty bullshit thought, making it cost at the price if meat is BS

The carnist brain is a dumb brain.

https://lemmy.world/c/vegan

Here in Denmark how much water is in the chicken is written on the label of the packaging. It is also required to list what ingredients are used to treat the chicken if anything besides water is used.

Let's call it 500mg instead of a half gram because big numbers are always scarier.

This is why I don't buy chicken from costco. Thankfully theres a good provider (Sunrise Farms) from Richmond on the Lower Mainland that makes a frozen skinless, boneless breat that's cheaper than Costco, cooks to nearly the same size it started as the water content is low, and is semi-local to Vancouver Island.

Here is a short that tells of what's going here. This short is also a reaction, from an independent farmer who farms chickens. I think the creator here, FarmingWhileBeige, offers a lot of good insight into what is bad and not bad in our current farming practices as a level headed not batshit crazy maga person.

Look for "air-chilled chicken" to find chicken that doesn't have this.

Also some organic brands don't do this because of the laws around chemical use making chlorine not possible. Brands vary, though.

Farmers markets are another route.

I bought a cheaper brand of meat than usual earlier this year. It was so wobbly it could have been a pillow in a water bed. Needless to say the cooked meat was salty but otherwise tasteless with a consistency of pre chewed porridge.