USDA has tried to construct a food safety argument for continuing to allow poultry processors to soak their birds and consumers. For years, USDA has allowed poultry processors to dump chicken carcasses into tubs of water to chill them. In the process, the birds gain up to 8 percent of their body weight in water. Consumers then pay chicken prices for water. More importantly, consumers may be paying for chickens that are more contaminated and likely to cause food poisoning.
Studies show that chickens leave the water baths more contaminated than when they entered.
We're disappointed that USDA is so blatantly favoring immersion chilling and trying to wrap it in a cloak of food safety. In March 1998, Consumer Reports Magazine found that 71 percent of the chickens they purchased at retail were contaminated with disease causing bacteria. Despite the high rates of contamination and illness, USDA ignored studies showing a immersion chilling increases carcass contamination. Instead, the Department's proposal presumes this method, favored by poultry processors, will be the only one used. However, in the European Union and Canada, poultry carcasses are cooled with air or a combination of air and water spray.