Keraguan Status Halal Ayam Ternakan Di Malaysia

Beberapa artikel mengenai kesahihan ayam-ayam yang dibekalkan di Malaysia. Ada sesiapa yang boleh bagi lagi bukti terutama gambar bagaimana ayam-ayam ini diberi makan dan disuntik ketika berada di ladang??

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Ayam diberi enzim babi: Mudah busuk

Oleh ZAINUDDIN ZAIN, FUAD HADINATA YAACOB dan ASMIZAN MOHD SAMIRAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Mungkinkah ayam daging yang diternak di negara ini diberi enzim babi untuk mempercepatkan tumbesarannya?

Isu itu kini hangat diperkatakan di kalangan masyarakat Islam negara ini berikutan penyebaran satu e-mel yang membangkitkan persoalan sejauh mana ayam di Malaysia boleh dijamin bebas daripada enzim tidak halal, terutama babi.

E-mel itu mendapat perhatian dan memberi pengaruh besar kepada orang ramai kerana dakwaan dibuat turut disokong fakta daripada kajian saintifik yang dilakukan di luar negara.

Mengikut e-mel itu, penggunaan makanan tambahan berbentuk ‘hidrolisis protein’ yang diperbuat daripada enzim babi dan bahan buangan haiwan seperti kulit lembu yang tidak diketahui status sama ada halal atau tidak daripada cara sembelihannya, dikesan di Eropah.

Enzim sama kini dipercayai digunakan secara meluas di beberapa negara di Asia, sekali gus menimbulkan persoalan besar sama ada ia turut digunakan di Malaysia berikutan ayam daging di negara ini kini pelik ciri fizikalnya.

Metro Ahad menerima banyak panggilan daripada orang ramai yang meminta pihak berkuasa melakukan siasatan terperinci mengenai dakwaan di dalam e-mel itu bagi memastikan umat Islam di negara ini tidak disogokkan makanan haram tanpa disedari.

Antara dakwaan di dalam e-mel itu dan faktanya disokong pemanggil ialah, ayam di pasar kini mudah busuk jika dibiarkan terdedah beberapa minit, menyebabkan peniaga sering menyembur air untuk memastikan ia kelihatan segar dan menghilangkan bau hanyir.

Mengulas dakwaan e-mel berkenaan, Persatuan Pengguna Pulau Pinang (CAP) mengaku kewujudan enzim itu, tetapi tidak tahu sejauh mana meluas penggunaannya di Malaysia kerana ‘kecanggihan’ enzim itu memerlukan ujian makmal yang sukar serta mahal untuk dikesan penggunaannya.

Pegawai Penyelidik CAP, Hatijah Hashim, berkata enzim babi memang digunakan untuk mempercepatkan tumbesaran ayam di luar negara seperti Eropah, Amerika Syarikat, Belanda, Brazil dan China, namun pihaknya tidak ada laporan tepat mengenai penggunaannya di negara ini kerana tidak pernah menjalankan kajian berhubung isu itu.

“Bagaimanapun, kita tidak menolak terus dakwaan di dalam e-mel itu. Kita berharap agensi kerajaan berkaitan menjalankan kajian terperinci bagi mengenal pasti sama ada benar atau tidak maklumat di dalam e-mel itu.

“Ini kerana ayam adalah makanan utama bagi penduduk negara ini, termasuk orang Islam. Ia satu isu besar yang memerlukan pengesahan berdasarkan ujian makmal, bukan hanya berdasarkan pengakuan penternak,” katanya kepada Metro Ahad.

Hatijah juga mengesahkan, ayam di negara ini diberi hormon dan antibiotik untuk menyihat dan menggemukkannya.

Katanya, di Eropah, Amerika Syarikat, Belanda, Brazil dan China, ayam disuntik dengan gelatin bertujuan menambah kandungan air, sekali gus berat badan ayam juga meningkat. Enzim babi pula digunakan untuk mempercepatkan tumbesaran ayam.

“Namun kami tidak tahu sama ada gelatin berkenaan, enzim babi atau bahan buangan lain yang diragui status halalnya turut digunakan oleh penternak di negara ini,” katanya.

Gabungan Persatuan Pengguna Malaysia (Fomca) turut memandang serius dakwaan di laman web itu kerana membabitkan isu yang sensitif bukan saja kepada umat Islam tetapi juga kesihatan semua pengguna.

Pengarah Komunikasinya, Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman, berkata sebelum ini negara dikejutkan dengan laporan mengenai ikan patin diberi makan usus babi bagi memastikan ia segar dan bersaiz besar.

“Justeru, apabila tersebarnya mengenai enzim babi digunakan untuk mempercepat proses tumbesaran dan mengemukkan ayam, ia bukan sesuatu yang tidak masuk akal atau boleh diketepikan begitu saja.

“Fomca meminta kerajaan menjalankan siasatan menyeluruh bukan saja ke atas ayam yang dijual di pasar, tetapi juga ladang ternakan,” katanya.

Mohd Yusof berkata, Fomca tidak bersetuju dengan pemberian pelbagai antibiotik, hormon atau vaksin kerana ia boleh memberi kesan sampingan, apatah lagi jika benar dakwaan pemberian enzim babi ke atas ternakan.

Katanya, dalam situasi sekarang, perkara itu tidak mustahil jika penternak mengetepikan tanggungjawab mereka, sebaliknya lebih mementingkan keuntungan berikutan kenaikan mendadak kos ternakan.

Bagi pengguna pula, beliau meminta supaya lebih peka dengan fizikal ayam yang dijual.

“Jika lihat ayam berbeza daripada biasa atau saiznya keterlaluan, tanya peniaga mengenai puncanya dan andainya masih was-was, jangan beli,” katanya.

Sementara itu, doktor perubatan yang kini mengusahakan ladang ayam organik, Dr Mohamad Zainol Ahmad Haja, yang dikaitkan di dalam e-mel berkenaan berkata, beliau mengetahui mengenai enzim itu menerusi jurnal penyiasatan Felicity Lawwrence di laman web The Ecologist yang turut disiarkan BBC di United Kingdom.

Katanya, Ekologi ialah kajian mengenai hubungan antara organisma hidup dengan persekitarannya.

“Siasatan Felicity Lawrence membuktikan makanan tambahan berbentuk ‘hidrolisis protein’ yang menggunakan enzim babi dan bahan buangan haiwan digunakan secara meluas di Eropah, terutama Jerman dan Belanda.

“Makanan tambahan daripada babi dan bahan buangan ini murah. Ia berkemampuan memendekkan tempoh matang ayam hanya kepada 28 hingga 30 hari berbanding tempoh sebenar 35 hingga 40 hari,” katanya.

Bagaimanapun, kata Dr Mohamad Zainol, penggunaan ‘hidrolisis protein’ sukar dibuktikan kerana memerlukan teknik pecahan sel yang rumit untuk menentukan kandungan enzim khinzir dan bahan buangan haiwan berbanding sel ayam sebenar.

“Bagaimanapun, ujian makmal di Eropah sebagaimana didedahkan Felicity Lawrence menunjukkan seekor ayam yang dibekalkan enzim ini didapati hanya mempunyai 40 peratus daging dan sel ayam sebenar, manakala baki 60 peratus lagi sel babi,” dakwanya.

Beliau mengaku tidak tahu sama ada penternak mencampur enzim sama di dalam makanan ayam mereka untuk mempercepatkan tumbesarannya.

“Yang pasti, ada penternak beretika dan mungkin ada yang tidak. Namun, melihat rupa ayam yang pelik hari ini, saya berasa siasatan perlu dijalankan untuk mengelak perasaan was-was membelenggu masyarakat Islam di negara ini.

“Memandangkan harga makanan ayam kini mahal, kemungkinan ada penternak menggunakan enzim berkenaan memang tinggi. Bayangkan jika seekor ayam dapat dijual hanya pada usia 28 hari berbanding 40 hari sepatutnya, makanan ayam dapat dikurangkan selama 12 hari. Ini penjimatan yang besar,” katanya.

>‘Bencana’ kesihatan kesan jangka panjang

KUALA LUMPUR: Tindakan ingin mengaut keuntungan ekspres dengan memberi ternakan, termasuk ayam, makanan tambahan berbentuk hormon dan antibiotik akan mengakibatkan ‘bencana’ terhadap kesihatan manusia pada jangka masa panjang.

Pakar ternakan ayam, Prof Dr Zulkifli Idrus, yang berpengalaman 13 tahun dalam kajian ayam, mengesahkan wujudnya pemberian hormon dan antibiotik, tetapi hanya berlaku di luar negara.

“Tindakan itu boleh memberi kesan sampingan. Sebagai contoh, apabila lelaki memakan hormon yang diketahui digunakan untuk wanita, ia mewujudkan sifat kewanitaan pada lelaki itu.

“Antibiotik pula, jika disuntik pada ayam, mewujudkan bakteria yang membentuk ketahanan dan boleh dipindahkan kepada manusia melalui makanan. Jika manusia itu sakit dan diberi antibiotik, ia tidak akan berkesan,” katanya.

Bagaimanapun, beliau percaya pemberian enzim babi atau suntikan lain ke atas ayam tidak digunakan di negara ini berikutan kosnya mahal kerana harus diimport dari negara luar, terutama Amerika Syarikat (AS).

“Sepanjang pengetahuan saya, tiada suntikan hormon, antibiotik atau enzim babi ini ke atas ayam kerana kosnya tinggi. Yang disuntik hanya vaksin iaitu untuk mengawal jangkitan penyakit,” katanya yang juga Pengarah Pusat Pengurusan Penyelidikan, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM).

Beliau berkata, ayam di negara ini diberi makan jagung dan kacang soya kerana ia sumber tenaga dan protein paling baik.

“Hari ini, jagung digunakan untuk menghasilkan bahan bakar dipanggil Ethanol dan permintaan Ethanol sangat tinggi, sekali gus meningkatkan harga jagung di pasaran dunia.

“Jadi jika ada penternak menggunakan pelbagai suntikan, kosnya pasti lagi tinggi kerana 70 peratus kos pengeluaran saja adalah pada makanan,” katanya yang turut menjalankan kajian memberi isi rong kelapa sawit sebagai makanan ayam.

Bagaimanapun, ketika ditanya kemungkinan ada pihak tidak bertanggungjawab sewenang-wenangnya menyuntik ayam mereka untuk mengaut keuntungan segera, Dr Zulkifli tidak menafikan mungkin ada berbuat demikian.

Jabatan Perkhidmatan Haiwan (JPH) turut menafikan ayam daging yang ada di pasaran tempatan diberi makanan tambahan dengan enzim babi.

Ketua Pengarahnya, Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaludin, berkata penyebaran khabar angin itu tidak benar, justeru beliau meminta orang ramai tidak mudah percaya berita berkenaan.

Katanya, ayam daging yang ada di pasaran selamat dimakan, manakala pihaknya sentiasa membuat pemeriksaan dan pemantauan bagi memastikan kualitinya terjamin serta mengikut peraturan ditetapkan.

“Kami sentiasa membuat pemeriksaan dan mengambil contoh daging ayam ini, sama ada di pasar atau ladang, bagi memastikan ia memenuhi syarat ditetapkan.

“Di ladang pula, apabila berlaku kematian melebihi tiga peratus daripada jumlah keseluruhan, pemeriksaan lanjut dijalankan untuk mengenal pasti puncanya dan kerana itu, penternak tidak boleh sewenang-wenangnya mengambil tindakan sesuka hati, termasuk pengambilan ubat atau suntikan tambahan,” katanya.

Beliau bagaimanapun mengakui, ternakan ayam hari ini disuntik dengan pelbagai vaksin dan antibiotik bagi memastikan haiwan itu tidak mendapat penyakit, tetapi kuantitinya mengikut syarat ditetapkan.

Katanya, dalam hal itu Kementerian Kesihatan mempunyai kuasa untuk memastikan penternak mengikut langkah betul dan jika ada yang menyalahgunakannya, mereka berdepan tindakan undang-undang.

“Kementerian mempunyai kuasa untuk mengambil tindakan ke atas penternak yang menyalahi peraturan, malah kami sering bekerjasama membuat pemeriksaan haiwan ini di mana saja.

“Malah, untuk pemberian ubat ini, ia perlu diluluskan jawatankuasa khas yang turut memantau pelaksanaannya supaya ia tidak menyalahgunakan kebenaran diberi,” katanya.

Mengulas dakwaan jika benar ada enzim babi dalam ayam tempatan, beliau berkata, ia tidak boleh dipercayai dan jika ada, peraturan atau syarat ketat dikenakan kepada penternak ayam di negara ini sudah cukup untuk mengetahui tindakan mereka.

Sementara itu, Konsultan Eksekutif Persekutuan Persatuan-Persatuan Penternak Malaysia (FLFAM), Dr Abdul Rahman Md Saleh, menafikan sekeras-kerasnya dakwaan itu dan menyifatkan penyebaran e-mel berkenaan sebagai fitnah.

“Kita jaga kepentingan masyarakat, lebih-lebih lagi negara kita negara Islam. Kita sentiasa melakukan pemantauan (penternakan ayam) dan tiada penternak berbuat begitu (menggunakan enzim babi untuk mempercepatkan tumbesaran ayam),” katanya.

Dr Abdul Rahman berkata, setiap hari pengeluaran ayam di negara ini mencecah 1.2 hingga 1.3 juta ekor dan hanya dijual pada usia 38 hingga 40 hari.

“Dengan jumlah pengeluaran sebesar itu, mana mungkin penternak ada masa untuk menggunakan enzim yang dimaksudkan (enzim babi). Kini semua penternak menggunakan teknologi moden dan mendapat perhatian terus daripada JPH.

“E-mel itu mendakwa ayam boleh dijual ketika berusia 28 hingga 30 hari, tetapi berdasarkan pemantauan kita tiada ayam dijual pada usia itu,” katanya.

Dr Abdul Rahman berkata, dakwaan yang disebarkan itu tiada asas dan menyifatkannya sebagai serkap jarang saja.

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Assalamualaikum semua.

terlanjur sahabat saya ,che ismail dah buka cerita,wajib saya berkongsi.Jika anda pernah come across Majalah 3 pada bulan July ade paparan ayam organic herba di usahakan seorang profesor - Dr Mohamad Zainol Abdul Haja.

Saya tertarik dgn cara pembiakan ayam yg Dr Zainol usahakan,bersih,terkawaldan halal.Saya dan suami menjejaki Dr Zainol,dpt jumpa,berborak,sy juga pernah bawa Dr Zainol dan isteri beliau Dr Mumtaz ,berjumpa dgn network saya di Melilea Puchong.Sekadar ingin mengajak beliau berkongsi pengalaman dgn kami.

Saya kagumi insan ini,mengorbankan kerjaya profesional utk akhirnye memilih jalan berbakti kepada ummah.Terlalu mudah akidah umat islam di Malaysia kini diperalat,kami sgt sedih.Matlamat kami sama,insyaallah.

Sungguh,teknologi menjadikan kita negara yg moden,teknologi juga akan kemudiannye merosak byk perkara baik dlm tubuh kita..yg akhirnye akan merosak akidah.Kalau hendak dicerita,sgt panjang.

Saya ringkaskan. Wujud enzim khinzir dlm ayam diper akui setelah bbrp tahun buat research,malah byk website yg ade maklumat ini,sy akan beri add nnt.Enzim khinzir mungkin tidak terlabel secara individual dlm proses menggemukkan ayam(m'sia tidak akan buat label ) ,tp hasil dari kajian ,protein dari khinzir,antibiotik,dan pelbagai lagi mampu menyuburkan ayam,cepat gemuk,lg berat lagi cepat boleh jual,cepat dpt hasil.,maka suntikan,makanan ayam ade campuran pelbagai yg sumbernya diragui.

Thats y,dari telur hungga ia menjadi hidangan anda,ayam tidak perlu mengambil masa berbulan bulan..ayam KFC cuma 28 hari,ayam daging mungkin 40 hari...sy tidak pasti.

Lately sibuk harga ayam naik,sy come across pulak seorang pengusaha ayam berbangsa china di Buletin Utama 2 mlm yg lalu,"harga ayam mesti mau naik sikit,makanan ayam pun ssulah naik halga,itu UBAT ayam pun sudah naik
halga"...ubat ???..tapi tiada apa lagi yg memeranjatkan saya....anda fikirkan,anda nilailah.Ayam kat malaysia ni sampai dah macam tak cukup supply,hg semakin lama semakin naik,yg gemuknye pengusaha ayam cina
inilah.

Halal ke ayam daging? tidak mengapa jika anda pasti dan yakin ttg kehalalannye,tambahan di Malaysia ade sykt besar yg melabelkan halal utk ape pun jua produk ayamnye.tetapi Taraf Halal itu ,saya anggap ia hanye di kategorikan utk PROSES PENYEMBELIHAN cara islam yg diutamakan di sykt itu..even pernah masuk TV,tetapi cara ayam dibesarkan,di beri mkn makanan yg bagaimana tidak mungkin termasuk dlm HALAL yg dimaksudkan....anda fikir bagaimana?

Sy pernah bertanye kpd Dr Zainol,government negara islam ini tak berbuat ape ape ke? Dia jawab,it happens around the world nanee.its the technology!!

Percaya atau tidak,sewaktu Dr Zainol confirm ayam daging ini ade enzimkhinzir,beliau menangis,after a long time of research,baru skrg confirm!!

Saya juga sgt sedih..sgt sgt sedeh. Bayangkan kotornye,hinanya makanan yang kita mkn,makanan yg membentuk 'kita'. Ayam daging biasanya dlm 20 minutes kalau letak kat luar peti sejuk mesti lalat dah datang,bau dia mak aaaaiiiii...senang hanyir,kenapa?Ade certain part part ayam ni daging dia punyelah padat dan banyak kan...kenapa ye...fikir fikirkan.

Saya tidak berniat mempromosi ape ape,sy juga tiada share dlm biz Dr Zainol,tapi saya seru,kepada sesiapa sahabat yg terbaca email ini,mungkin skrng tiba masanye kita mengubah sumber pemakanan kita..maafkan saya jika terlambat bercerita,sy hanya manusia,kdg2 sy takut juga pandangan ikhlas saya di salah erti.Pernah beberapa kali sy bercerita kpd kwn kwn,tapi cerita sy di anggap seperti diada adakan,malah ade yg tak respon ape ape,(bila pk pk kelakar pun ade,takkan benda dasyat mcm ni takde respon ek...)jd sy berhenti bercerita seketika..maafkan sy terlambat
memanjangkan kepada kwn kwn..but anyway inilah sebenarnye tanggungjawab kita.

Fwd this mail to your friends,kita ambillah tanggungjawab ini.insyaaallah

Allah berkati.

last mth pun article Ayam Organic ade keluar kat Berita Harian,full page,kat dlm tu pun ade ttg enzim khinzir ini.

Anyway sy dan keluarga kini tidak lagi risau harga ayam daging ni naik ke turun ke,lantokkkkkk le dia....
Ayam organic jauh lebih sedap,manis n tak byk daging.,yg penting kita pasti ttg sumber pembesaran ayam ini.,insyaallah.

wassalam

Dr. Mohamad Zainol Ahmad Haja
Head - Research & Development
Innovation Centre
Mumtaz Meat & Marine Foods Sdn Bhd.
No 17. Jalan Nirwana 35.
Taman Nirwana. 68000 ampang.
Selangor. Malaysia.

Tel 603 92811802 / 92816924
Fax 603 92816925
mobile 6012 3248081

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Special Report Supermarkets: Chicken
Wander down the meat aisle of any supermarket and you will find mountains of chicken being sold at unbelievably cheap prices. The real reasons for this cannot be found on the label…

Date:01/09/2004 Author:Felicity Lawrence

It was the scald tank that got me in the end. I had expected trouble in the slaughter room, but we’d moved through there without incident. We’d already passed the electrocution bath, and I’d slipped easily enough round the neck cutters slicing through carotid arteries. There wasn’t as much blood as I’d feared.

I had been smuggled into a large chicken factory by a meat-hygiene inspector who was worried about standards in the poultry industry. We were gazing into a hot-water tank into which the dead birds were being dipped at the rate of 180 a minute, to scald the skin and loosen the feathers before they went into the plucking machine.

It was 3pm and, as at many factories, the water was only changed once a day. It was a brown soup of faeces and feather fragments, and, the hygiene inspector pointed out, at 52 degrees centigrade, ‘the perfect temperature for salmonella and campylobacter organisms to survive and cross-contaminate the birds’. We moved on to the whirring rubber fingers that remove the feathers. ‘Plucking machines exert considerable pressure on the carcass, which tends to squeeze faecal matter out onto the production line. It only takes one bird colonised with campylobacter to infect the rest. The bacteria count goes up 10-fold after this point,’ he continued. I found myself wondering who had done the counting.

We went outside. There, birds in towering stacks of crates delivered earlier in the day by a procession of juggernauts were being given a chance to calm down before being shunted into the slaughter room. They need to settle for the men to be able to pick them up by their feet and hang them upside down on the moving belt on which they begin their journey through the factory process. The crates are made of plastic mesh with holes.

The birds, which have typically been kept indoors all their lives – in 23-hour-a-day low light for maximum productivity, tend to panic when they are taken into the fresh air and daylight for the first time. As they open their bowels, the faeces falls from the crates at the top down through the tower on to those below. ‘Pretty daft, isn’t it?’ the inspector said. The vast majority of the 820 million UK chickens we eat each year are now processed in huge factories like these, which combine an abattoir with cutting, packing and labelling the meat before it is transported directly to supermarket distribution centres.

More than half the UK’s chicken farms are directly contracted to the factories, too, rearing chicks delivered to them from the factory hatcheries, although British poultry farmers are increasingly struggling to stay in business in the face of cheap imports, particularly from Thailand and Brazil. In the late 1980s chicken farmers received slightly more than 30 per cent of the retail price of chicken, but today they are lucky to get 20 per cent. British chicken processors, whose factories require substantial capital investment and have high labour costs, are often working on margins of less than 1 per cent. If they cannot deliver the price the supermarket wants, retailers can use the stick of sourcing abroad – either from Europe, where the high value of the pound to the euro favours continental farmers, or from developing countries, where costs are lower and standards may not be so good. It is only by keeping volumes high that conventional farmers and processors here can survive.

Two thirds of chicken farms in the UK now consist of units of 100,000 birds or more. But that makes them dependent on the people squeezing their margins in the first place – the supermarkets. They are the only customers who buy in sufficient volume. The story is not unique to chicken. Pig farmers and processors suffer similar problems. Ten years ago a British pig farmer made £9 profit per pig; in 2002 he lost an average of £3 per pig. Neither poultry nor pig farming receive subsidies. Only the biggest and most intense producers can compete. This is one of the consequences of our obsession with cheap meat. The constant drive to increase yields leads to ever-greater intensification. As the trade has globalised, the same trend is now being seen in developing countries. Small poultry farmers in Brazil and Thailand are being squeezed out by huge factory farms. It is a pattern that can be observed in most food sectors, from vegetable farming to confectionery manufacture. But where livestock is involved, the almost irresistible drive towards industrialisation has particular consequences. Factory farming in these sorts of conditions is heavily dependent on the use of drugs to prevent or treat disease. Pigs, chickens, laying hens, sheep, calves, dairy cows and farmed fish all receive routine dosages of antibiotics either through injection or in their food and water.

By the end of the 1990s about 450 tonnes of antibiotics were being used on farm animals in the UK each year – about the same quantity as on humans. Many of the antibiotics given to farm animals are the same as, or related to, antibiotics used in human medicine. And yet, in 1997 the EU banned an antibiotic called avoparcin for use in animals because of the likely development of resistance in humans to the related antibiotic vancomycin. But the legacy of using avoparcin in factory farming remains. Because the drug was given in low dosages to chickens in feed or drinking water, it didn’t kill bacteria completely but allowed some to survive and develop resistance. Now we are facing untreatable vancomycin-resistant superbugs in humans. Vancomycin is the most powerful human antibiotic available, the last line of defence for patients with the hospital superbug MRSA. In 1998 the UK poultry industry said it would remove all growth-promoting antibiotics from feed voluntarily, ahead of a European ban that comes into force in 2006. But by 2003 it had become clear that one in five producers had quietly slipped back into old habits. Many producers had found that their birds were falling ill without the growth promoters, and resumed administering them. Others had switched to far greater use of therapeutic antibiotics prescribed by vets. I have seen production sheets from a large chicken factory, sent to me anonymously, which make clear that its chicks, both free-range and indoor-reared, are still routinely given antibiotics in their water.

In February 2003 avian flu broke out in the eastern Dutch province of Gelderland. The Dutch government enforced a ban on the movement of farmed birds in a desperate effort to stop the disease spreading through the country’s intensive poultry units. By April the disease had spread to Belgium. Exports of eggs and chickens were banned. By the time the Germans had caught it in May 2003, and started sealing their roads, more than 30 million Dutch and Belgian chickens had been destroyed. A Dutch vet had also died, having caught the disease from an infected bird, briefly sparking fears that the virus could mutate and trigger a flu epidemic in humans. The UK poultry industry escaped the European epidemic of avian flu in 2003, but it was back on red alert in January 2004 as the disease struck again – this time cutting through flocks in southeast Asia and claiming lives as it spread to the human population. The World Health Organisation warned that if the bird virus mutated and attached itself to human flu, the consequences would be devastating. Imports of meat from Thailand were banned by the EU when it emerged that the Thai government had been covering up the fact that the country’s flocks were infected. The strain of flu was particularly virulent, and The Lancet said that if it became contagious among people the prospect of a global pandemic was ‘massively frightening’. But despite these increasingly frequent food scares, just wander down the meat aisles of any supermarket and you will find mountains of chicken being sold at unbelievable prices.

Chicken breasts: buy one, get one free... Chicken thighs: three for the price of two... Whole birds: half price. Chicken is cheaper than it was 20 years ago, and we’re buying five times more of it, spending £2.5 billion a year. Chicken has become one of the weapons in supermarkets’ price wars, but being able to buy a whole chicken for not much more than the price of a cup of coffee comes at a cost. Chickens, like other animals, have become industrialised and globalised. We no longer know where they are produced or how they are processed. By the time we buy them in aseptic little packages, or processed into convenience meals, we have lost any sense of their origin.

Extracted from Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrence published by Penguin. Copyright © Felicity Lawrence 2004. www.penguin.co.uk

45 days in the life of a broiler chicken

The modern broiler chicken has been bred to fatten in the shortest time possible. (The word ‘broiler’ derives from a combination of the two traditional methods of cooking chicken: boiling and roasting.) The broiler farms divide the year up into a series of eight-week cropping periods. Each ‘crop’ of chickens takes 40 to 42 days to grow from chick to two-kilogram bird ready for slaughter. One week is taken to clean and disinfect the sheds before the next crop is begun. The units are not cleaned during cropping. So, after two to three weeks the wood shavings on the floor of the sheds are completely covered with poultry manure, and the air is acrid with ammonia.

Everything is automated. Computers control not just the heating and ventilating systems, but also the dispensing of feed and water, which are medicated with drugs to control parasites, or with mass doses of antibiotics as necessary. Sheds these days typically hold 30,000 to 50,000 birds. Space and heating cost money, so the more birds you can pack in, the greater the yield.

The UK government guidelines currently advise that there should be a maximum stocking density of 34 kilograms of bird per square metre of floor space. In fact, a survey conducted by Compassion in World Farming in 2001 found that only Marks and Spencer stipulated this as a maximum. Most other supermarkets permitted stocking densities of up to 38 kilograms per square metre; that allows each mature chicken an area smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. By the time the birds reach the end of their lives, the sheds are so crammed they can hardly move.

Animal welfare groups have regularly video-recorded signs of acute stress in birds, including feather-pecking and cannibalism of dead chickens. Mortality rates are high – at 1 per cent a week, seven times higher than in egg-laying hens. Once the shed is carpeted with chickens, it can be hard for the stockman to see all those that have died before the others start feeding on them. Two companies – Ross Breeders and Cobb – supply 80 per cent of the breeding stock for commercial broilers around the world. Much research has been devoted to genetic selection to produce the most efficient bird.

The RSPCA, which says that it sees the suffering of broiler chickens as one of the most pressing animal welfare issues in the UK today, took the photographs above comparing the growth rate of a normal chicken with that of a broiler. In 1957 the average growth period for an eating chicken was 63 days, and just less than three kilograms of feed was required for each kilo of weight. By the 1990s the number of growth days had been reduced to 42 to 43, and little more than one and a half kilograms of feed was required. The industry is working to reduce the lifespan still further. By 2007 birds are expected to reach the required two-kilogram weight in 33 days. But genetic selection to produce birds that work like factory units of production creates serious health problems. Death from heart attacks or swollen hearts that cannot supply enough oxygen to the birds’ oversized breast muscles are common. A study in 1992 by the University of Bristol found detectable problems in 90 per cent of UK broilers, and that more than a quarter of birds had leg problems severe enough to affect their welfare. The industry has done its own survey and says that less than 4 per cent of birds have significant problems. It has not made its research available in the public domain, however. And for those broilers that are kept for breeding, and are therefore not slaughtered at six weeks, but allowed to reach sexual maturity at about 15 to 18 weeks; they have to be starved, otherwise they would become too big to mate. "A Dutch additive supplier and a German protein manufacturer were caught on video boasting that they had developed undetectable methods of adulterating chicken with waste from cows"

The Netherlands is the centre of the ‘tumbling’ industry, the process in which the bulking up of chicken takes place. Dutch processors import cheap frozen chicken from Thailand and Brazil. The meat has often been salted, because salted meat attracts only a fraction of the EU tariff applied to fresh meat. The processors defrost the meat, and then use dozens of needles to inject into it a solution of additives, or tumble it in giant cement-mixer-like machines, until the water added to bulk the chicken out has been absorbed. The tumbling helps dilute the salt to make the chicken palatable. So, as well as avoiding substantial taxes, the processors can make huge profits by selling water. Once the chicken has been tumbled and/or injected, it is refrozen and shipped on for further processing by manufacturers or for use by caterers. The story gets even less appetising, as I discovered when I met John Sandford, unsung local authority hero and leading trading standards officer at Hull City Council. His inves-tigations began in 1997, when trading standards officers were contacted by a restaurateur who couldn’t get his chicken, bought from a wholesaler, to cook properly. It fell to the council to test the meat, and they found it contained 30 per cent added water. Sandford began puzzling over how the processor had managed to get so much water to stay in the chicken.

Why didn’t the water just flood out when it was turned into a takeaway or a ready meal or a chicken nugget? The chicken was from Holland. Some time later Sandford discovered that there was gossip among UK producers that some Dutch companies had found new methods of adulterating their meat. Now the authorities had to prove it. Sandford knew it would be a slog. ‘When they realise you are on their trail, they just change their specification to disguise what they are doing in different ways. They are multi-million-pound companies with limitless money to spend on technology.’ Sandford has a budget of £20,000 a year to spend on laboratory tests.

The breakthrough came when the laboratory Sandford uses in Manchester was able to develop new DNA testing that could pinpoint protein from different species of animals. The first DNA tests on further samples of Dutch catering chicken – well-known brands that are used widely in takeaways, pubs, clubs, Indian, Chinese and other ethnic restaurants across the country – showed up lots of water and, astonishingly, pork. Some of the samples of what were being sold as chicken breasts were in fact only 54 per cent chicken. Nearly half of the samples contained less meat than they claimed and were mislabelled. Most had originated in Thailand and Brazil. And instead of using the old trick of phosphates to hold the water in, the processors were using a new, little understood method involving hydrolysed proteins. Hydrolysed proteins are proteins extracted at high temperatures or by chemical hydrolysis from old animals or parts of animals that are not use for food, such as skin, hide, bone, ligaments and feathers. Rather like cosmetic collagen implants, they make the flesh swell up and retain liquid.

Shortly afterwards some documents came into my hands that suggested there was considerably more going on behind the scenes. These documents showed that, together with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Manchester lab had been looking for not just chicken adulterated with pork, but also chicken adulterated with beef waste. The possibility of BSE in chicken meat raised its ugly head. If the Dutch processors were injecting chicken with hydrolysed proteins extracted from cow material, as these documents suggested, which bit of the cow was that material coming from? And would the process of hydrolysis kill off any infective BSE prions? The baton passed to Ireland where the food safety inspectors in Dublin, tipped off by their English colleagues, had started their own tests on chicken. Using a private lab with different and more sensitive DNA testing techniques, they found what they had been looking for: undeclared bovine proteins in chicken breasts from Holland, and lots more pork in chicken labelled ‘halal’. Since much of the chicken was destined for ethnic restaurants where pork would be abhorrent to Muslims and beef to Hindus, it presented considerable moral dilemmas.

The BBC’s Panorama team was keen to take the investigation further and it made sense to join forces with it. I had traced the production of hydrolysed proteins back to factories in Germany and Spain. Panorama began secret filming. Its evidence was shocking. Panorama caught a Dutch additive supplier and a German protein manufacturer on video boasting that they had developed undetectable methods of adulterating chicken with waste from cows. The cow proteins were mixed into additive powders, which were then injected into the meat, mostly chicken breasts, by poultry processors, so that it could take up as much as 50 per cent water. But they were able to break down the DNA of the cow proteins to such an extent that the authorities’ tests would not find it. Proteins extracted from chicken waste could also be used, but the reason for choosing cows was that the raw material was even cheaper. The owner of the Dutch company that mixed the proteins into powders for the chicken processors to use told the undercover reporters that for more than 10 years the industry had been extracting hydrolysed beef proteins to inject not only into chicken but also into other meats such as ham.

At least 12 companies in Holland were using the new undetectable hydrolysed proteins. At first the FSA maintained the line that it was a labelling issue, but then decided it was a major scandal and fraud. It is now pressing the European Commission to ban the use of proteins from other species in chicken, and to limit the amount of water that may legally be added to bird carcasses to 15 per cent. The industry says some added water is vital for technical reasons, to prevent the chicken from drying out. Despite a pioneering investigation by its own scientific experts, the FSA was hamstrung by the fact that in European law there was nothing illegal about what the Dutch were doing so long as they put it on an obscure label somewhere. A multi-million-pound hi-tech industry had been, and still is, able to import cheap frozen Thai and Brazilian chicken, doctor it with animal waste, and sell it to restaurants, institutions and manufacturers across Britain. It has run rings around the authorities for years. Eventually, no doubt, new regulations will grind their way through Brussels putting a limit on the amount of water you can add to chicken, and banning the use of foreign proteins; though how they will be enforced when processors already know how to beat the tests is not clear.

Who knows how far the technology has spread? I have seen sales literature from additive companies offering protein mixes for all kinds of meats and for fish. It is worth remembering, meanwhile, that the good guys are those who only add, and presumably will continue to add, 15 per cent water to your chicken. Chicken Nuggets Mechanically-recovered meat is obtained by pushing chicken carcasses through a giant teabag-like screen to produce a slurry of protein. This is then bound back together with polyphosphates and gums. To this slurry are often added large quantities of water, soya proteins to restore the texture of meat, emulsifying gums to stop the mix separating out again, and flavourings and sugars to make up for the lack of meat.

Traditional Farming Makes Sense For centuries traditional farms were mixed, partly to take advantage of the virtuous circle of plants feeding animals whose manure could then feed crops, but also as an insurance against the risk of disease. Farm diseases are usually quite specific, and attack one type of livestock or crop. The best way to prevent them is to avoid keeping too many of the same animals together in one place, and to rotate them so that the cycle of diseases and parasites is broken. Organic farmers know this. Once a disease does strike, just as isolation works with human illness, keeping animals away from contact with other animals of their type is the best way of controlling it. Modern systems of monoculture do the opposite. Meat and livestock are not only regularly transported around the world; they are also kept together in great crowds in the same place year after year. By the time a disease has been noticed, it has often taken devastating grip.

Rujukan:
http://www.hmetro.com.my/Sunday/BeritaUtama/20070923100447/Article
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blalang_group/message/54995
http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=309