WRITTEN QUESTION P-1299/03

by Linda McAvan (PSE) to the Commission

(1 April 2003)

Subject: Watered down chicken

Is the Commission aware of media reports concerning poultry processors from Holland and Brazil pumping chickens with water, artificial chemicals, and even material from pig and cow skin? The objective is apparently to increase the weight of the product and mislead consumers.

Is this legal, and if so what tests have been done to ensure consumer safety? Are there labelling requirements? If this is illegal, what is the Commission doing to address this problem?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(10 June 2003)

The Commission learned on 12 March 2003 the results of the checks performed by the Irish and British authorities which were published on the Internet the same day(1). These checks concerned mainly products based on chicken fillets processed in the Netherlands and intended for the catering trade and followed on from the investigations carried out by the same authorities in 2001 and 2002.

These chicken fillets had been subject to the addition of water and other ingredients such as salts, polyphosphates, animal and vegetable proteins, flavourings and flavour enhancers. The animal proteins used are generally extracted from milk (casein and caseinates), or are protein hydrolysates obtained from the processing of animal by-products. The presence of salts, polyphosphates and proteins has the deliberate effect of retaining a significant proportion of water in the end product.

As the Commission stated in its answers to Written Questions E-2418/02 from Mrs Jackson(2) and E-2331/02 from Mrs Corbey(3), this type of procedure is not illegal, as long as the ingredients used meet the applicable regulations in terms of authorisation and labelling.

According to the information communicated to the Commission, the bovine proteins used in the Netherlands for the production of the chicken fillets concerned are from establishments in Spain and Germany. Additional investigations carried out in 2002 by the German and Spanish authorities at establishments that produce these hydrolised proteins did not find that the law was being broken.

However, investigations in Ireland and the United Kingdom have shown that infringements of the European law on labelling(4) persist. The infringements recorded in respect of the products from the Netherlands included labelling likely to mislead consumers about the real nature of the product, an incomplete list of ingredients, an incorrect percentage of meat, and the use of the word Halal in a product containing pork.

At the meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on 8 April 2003, the Commission reminded the Member States in which such products are produced and marketed of their obligation to enforce the existing legislation and to encourage the national authorities to cooperate further in order to ensure greater effectiveness in their inspections and to intensify inspections whenever repeated infringements of the legislation are found.

(1) http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/chickenwater0303.http://www.fsai.ie/press_releases/120303.htm.

(2) OJ C 28 E, 6.2.2003, p. 234.

(3) OJ C 52 E, 6.3.2003, p. 152.

(4) Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 March 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs OJ L 109, 6.5.2000.