Foxes minding the chicken breasts

Eats Wombat pointed me to a story by the indefatigable Jay Rayner in last Sunday's Observer. My big beef about takeaway chicken explains why cheap chicken -- the kind Brits scarf with such relish -- is likely to contain pork and beef protein. To keep the water in. Why? Because water is free. So if you can persuade a piece of chicken to absorb a load of water you can charge chicken prices (not that high, but hey) for nothing. And the easiest way to do that is inject the chicken bits with protein powder.

Rayner explains the background, the reason various establishments from the religious to the medical might be upset, and the UK Food Standards Agency’s apparent inability to do anything about it. He also quotes the FSA’s advice to consumers who might be concerned about beef and pork in their chicken. “Consumers should ask restaurateurs whether the chicken on sale contains ‘hydrolysed proteins’ and avoid it if it does.” As Rayner says, “Try that one on for size in your takeaway”. He goes on to stiff the FAS: “In short, the regulator is shoving responsibility for the issue into the hands of the consumer.”

But actually, that's where some responsibility surely lies. The problem is that the average British eater, especially those who eat the cheapest chicken at the tens of thousands of takeaways that Rayner mentions, simply aren’t interested in this sort of information. Rayner points out that the problem is peculiarly British.

The depressing fact is that the UK is by far the biggest market for these horribly cheap chicken breasts. Industry insiders estimate we import more than 1,000 tons a week. Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, the principle players in the business, simply have no reason to act.

The average British eater is much more concerned with cheap than good. And hypocrisy is his middle name. I well remember the fuss that was made when the public persuaded its representatives to ban farrowing crates in British pig farms. Cruel and unusual punishment, they were deemed to be. We won’t have them in our factory farms. Hurrah. But we won’t pay a penny per pound more for the pork. We’ll just stuff our faces with bacon butties made from finest Danish and Dutch bacon, borne of pigs born in -- yup -- farrowing creates.

The consumer does bear some responsibility. I’m not saying adulteration should be permitted; it shouldn’t. Buyer beware is all very well, but the buyer needs an idea of what to beware of. The ideal is to know who raises your food, how it is grown and processed and maybe, as a result, paying a little more and eating a little less. Everyone would be better off even, probably, the chickens.