Johannesburg - South African poultry producers said new restrictions on brine-injected chicken portions will hurt the industry and be hard to enforce.
Individual cuts of chicken can be composed of just 15 percent of fat- and salt-solutions, injected in a process known as brining, the country’s Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said this month in a statement.
The government previously hadn’t put a limit on brine-injected portions, it said.
Whole chickens can be composed of as much as 10 percent brine solutions, up from 8 percent previously, according to the department.
“We want regulations that are technically valid, enforceable and economically realistic,” South African Poultry Association Chief Executive Officer Kevin Lovell said in an emailed response to questions on Tuesday. “The current draft does not fit those criteria.”
The agriculture department also ordered that product labels accurately describe what’s been added to the poultry and that testing be done once a year on water uptake levels and injection limits. The new requirements are being phased in over six months, it said.
The changes to the country’s existing Poultry Meat Regulations were published in the Government Gazette on October 2, the department said.
BLOOMBERG