‘Natural’ on the Label Has Foster Squawking

You might call it Chicken of the Sea, if a certain tuna company had not snapped up that name.

Some chicken processors add salt water, a seaweed extract and other ingredients to enhance the taste and texture of the meat.

It’s perfectly legal, and what’s more, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows the phrase "100 percent natural" on labels for these products.

That does not sit well with Foster Farms, a Livingston-based producer that sells most of its chicken without adding anything.

"The concern for us is that the USDA has been allowing the term ‘natural’ on products that have been pumped up with other ingredients," said Greta Janz, vice president of marketing for the company.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, last week asked the USDA to rescind its 2006 approval of the labeling. He said it is unfair to producers of nonenhanced chicken and could mislead people into buying products with an unhealthy amount of salt.

"When a label says ’100 percent natural,’ consumers should be getting that product as it occurs naturally, not something that has been enhanced, injected or altered with artificial substances," Cardoza said at a Capitol news conference.

Enhanced chicken has gained a nearly 30 percent share of the fresh market, he said. It is not a major part of the Northern San Joaquin Valley’s poultry industry, although Foster Farms does have a line of marinated products.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the nation’s second-largest chicken company, sells whole birds and pieces in a solution of chicken broth, salt and carrageenan, a seaweed extract that helps the meat retain moisture.

"All the ingredients that are in our enhanced chicken are naturally occurring ingredients," said Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for the Texas-based company. "In blind taste tests, four out of five consumers preferred the enhanced to the nonenhanced chicken, but we offer both to give consumers a choice."

Tyson Foods Inc., the top chicken company, last year rolled out a line of enhanced products with reduced sodium.

"An increasing number of consumers tell us they want all-natural chicken, yet prefer the taste and juiciness of marinated product," said Bill Lovette, a senior vice president for the Arkansas-based company, in a news release.

Designation is under review

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is reviewing its rules for the "natural" label. Hormel Foods Corp. of Minnesota raised the issue in an October petition, and Foster Farms and other interested parties have submitted comments.

A proposed revision could be released for comment by fall, agency spokesman Steven Cohen said.

Cardoza is asking the agency to bar the "natural" label on enhanced chicken products and to increase the minimum type size for the listing of added ingredients.

He was joined at the news conference by Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., whose state is home to Sanderson Farms Inc., another poultry company that opposes the labeling.

This is not the first time that Foster Farms, the No. 1 poultry company in the West, has taken on much bigger industry rivals. In 1996, it and other California producers got the USDA to change a rule that allowed a "fresh" label on chicken even though it was kept in a deep freeze.

A decade later, the debate has shifted to what’s in the meat.

"We think enhanced is OK, but don’t label it ‘natural,’" said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.

Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at jholland@modbee.com or 578-2385.