Huh, who knew?

[Forum Administrator]

Apparently it is against US Federal law to put hormones and antibiotics into chicken.

I picked up a cornish game hen at the store the other day and it said "All Natural" and then (Federal law prohibits the use of hormones and antibiotics in chicken).

Didn't know this. Good news I guess.

[jennifer5799]

Uh, I knew!

That's why my family eats mostly chicken over beef. I haven't found any info on pork yet, though.

They do still add "solution" to the some chicken. BUT I personally feel that even the food from the grocery store, with whatever they add to it, is still better than kibble for our animals. Unfortunately, not all of us can afford organic/free range, etc...

[josiesmom]

While it may be illegal to use antibiotics and hormones in chicken, it is not illegal to use food coloring additives and to offer foods that enhance the color of the meats. Many chicken feeds contain colorants to imbue a yellow tint. Marigolds are also fed to do this too.

Chicken that has been supplemented this way is easily detected - the chicken skin will be decidedly yellow. While chicken that has not will have pale white or almost translucent skin.

Avoid those "enhanced" and solution added chickens/ cornish hens - most solutions are just chicken or turkey broth, but that adds sodium which the ferrets don't need.

I suppose you could reduce the amount of solution by dilution if you soaked the enhanced poultry overnight submerged in water. But who wants to do that?

Cheers, Kim

[Forum Administrator]

Ugh! They make it yellow on purpose? I ALWAYS avoid that at the store because I thought the chicken was just going bad, lol! Why would you make it look yellow intentionally, that's nasty! BTW- Thanks for the info, Kim

[buzzonesbirdie]

I knew too I also never understood the whole yellow chicken??? I grew up on a farm and our chickens were never yellow. The first time I saw one in the store I thought it was a different type of chicken (i was 6 or so)

[meli]

I knew about the feed to. Purdue was doing that to their chickens, but I haven't bought whole chicken to realize the coloration.

[tss]

I knew that, Tyson tries to make it more appealing by marking their prices up and slapping "all natural" on the package.

I've never seen a yellow chicken at the store, I got some chickens from someone and they were yellow but weren't fed anything to make them like that. They were completely free range and natural fed.

[Forum Administrator]

Tss (Maria) is answering some questions for the "commonly asked questions" portion of the HF website (all these questions will be answered by the HF mentors). Anywhoo, she recently found that while HORMONES are strictly illegal to put into chicken, antibiotics are not.

Maria, would you like to post some more info about your findings here?

[tss]

Here it is! I just trimmed the other stuff out of it.

In America it is illegal to sell poultry and pork if hormones have been administered. Poultry can be given antibiotics but there is a "withdrawal" period after it is administered, it insures that there is a VERY minimal amount of residue left in the meat. A withdrawal period is actually required with all livestock given antibiotics.
www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA400066
www.ific.org/publications/factsheets/fdaanimalantifs.cfm

Tyson was required to take "Antibiotic free" off of their packages. I had gotten some whole chickens back in February because they were on sale for $.29 a pound, the packages still said that but I checked my most recent chicken and it didn't say "No antibiotics". Tyson was required to remove that in mid May because it also said it was to prevent antibiotic Resistance in humans. None of the companies use the types of antibiotics that can lead to drug resistance in humans.
www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/05/tysons_chickens.html

BUT, Food lion does sell hormone and antibiotic free chicken so if you've got one in your area check it out. I can just really cheap marked down backs and necks if I keep an eye out.