Question from Linda
Hi Debra, love your website, I am on your site everyday. I recently found out that after chickens are slaughtered they are rinsed with water and then they are dipped in a chlorine wash. Perdue, Tyson and even Giant Eagle’s Nature’s Basket brand are treated with chlorine. Is this safe?
I just switched to Whole Foods house brand, it is not organic, but is free range, airchilled. Is organic chicken and free range chicken dipped in a chlorine solution? I am not even sure if it is safe, maybe it is, i am just so confused about why every thing is so polluted with chemicals. Perdue assured me there is no residue on the finished product.
Please tell me if it safe to eat chicken and turkeys that are processed this way. USDA recomends a chlorine wash, that is what the companies told me. Please help me understand. Thank you.
Debra’s Answer
OK. Here is the link to the USDA National Organic Program: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/nop. This is the place to look up any questions you have about what is allowed in organic food and what isn’t.
The Regulations are in the right hand column, under General Information. Click on “Regulations.” The Regulations also reference the “National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances” which is above the Regulations, under “I Want Information On.”
Chlorine is not a prohibited substance in organic food production, however, the amount of chlorine in the water must not exceed the amount of chlorine allowed in the Safe Drinking Water Act. So it seems that straight chlorine bleach could not be used, although I couldn’t find that specifically in the Regulations.
A “chlorine wash” is a low-concentration chlorine bath used to kill micro-organisms that may cause illness. The idea behind organic chickens is that they would be raised to be healthier and with better hygiene, therefore not needing the chlorine wash.
I read a blog where people were complaining about the chlorine smell on chicken and others were recommending buying organic.
We buy Coleman organic chicken and have not noticed any chlorine smell.
I questioned Purdu about chlorine wash and they stated that their chickens are washed in water and in no way are treated with chlorine. Is this true?
I can’t verify that what Purdue is saying is true without doing an inspection of all their chicken processing plants, which is not something I can do.
There is something called “Truth in Advertising” which states that if you make a claim, it must be true. But there are many violations of this every day.
Organic food is different. It must meet certain standards of not using chemicals and organic food producers are heavily inspected and certified. You can be pretty sure that organic chicken is not processed with chlorine but Purdue is unknown except to take their word on this matter.
I had a tumor removed from my colon 3 weeks’s ago. I believe it’s from the chemicals in the food we eat. I just found out about the chlorine in the chicken.
What a shock OO MY GOD. I had changed my diet because of the chemicals.
Now chicken. I started to put the chicken in salt water for about a half hour. Then pour the water out and then put it back in clean water about a half hour.
It helps a lot, because it will take out most of the chlorine.
I changed my diet years ago.