Does Chlorine Make American Chicken Taste Funny?
Chlorine is a nifty chemical often used to ensure swimming pool hygiene. Other times, it keeps chicken carcasses bacteria-free. After being defeathered and eviscerated, 80-percent of American poultry takes a chlorine bath.
Europe doesn't support the chlorine presence, and has banned American poultry since 1997. Now Slate wants to know: does chlorine really make our chickens taste funny? In 1999, University of Georgia researchers noticed a difference between treated and un-treated chicken, but only after cooked patties sat in the fridge for four days. If the chlorine is used correctly, according to Slate, people won't detect any traces of chlorine after cooking.
Good to know. Because I was hoping my chicken wouldn't taste like swim lessons.
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8 Comments:
key phrase: "if the chlorine is used correctly". yeah, i'm sure the government is totally on top of that situation.
how about raising and slaughtering chickens humanely, where you don't have to dip them in bleach to kill surface bacteria?
kurteye at 9:26PM on 07/29/08
At least that chicken tasted like something!
srhcb at 9:53PM on 07/29/08
I wonder if this is somehow connected to why Kosher chicken tastes so.darn.good. I know, I know, it's probably just the extra salt from the brining... but man that stuff is tasty.
Lilly at 10:36PM on 07/29/08
Srhcb, now that is funny, thanks for the chuckle.
OliverRanch at 12:07AM on 07/30/08
The industry is moving as fast as the consumer wants to pay for it toward air-chilling chickens rather than dunking them in ice water. Chlorine is used in both processes. In the water chilled process, however, the birds can absorb up to and over 10% of their weight in water. Yuck. Those are the birds used in this taste test. Water chilling is why its difficult to get nice crispy skin on run of the mill supermarket chickens.
DavidinCT at 4:51AM on 07/30/08
Dude, go pastured. You'll never go back. Find a farmer, pay the farmer, eat real chicken. It's a defining culinary moment. Here's how I prepared my first real chicken. I have not gone back since.
Apple-Sage Roasted Chickenzilla (they were really big chickens).
ExpatChef at 2:37PM on 07/30/08
well when the "population" has to eat chicken (or a facsimile, thereof) twice a day, 5-7 days a week in some kind of mc nugget form ... what do we expect? i'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to grow 8 extra wings on the birds yet to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the american 2-legged pig. what they're doing to farm animals is crime against nature.
pooch at 3:55PM on 07/30/08
I have to say, whatever they're doing (or not doing, in this case) with the chickens in Europe, they're doing it right. I was floored by the flavor of all the chicken I ate in Paris. Made me want to eat chicken every day, and this is from a person who eats it very rarely here in the states.
missginsu at 4:38PM on 07/30/08