Funky Chicken

Do American birds taste funny because we chlorinate them?
By Nina Shen Rastogi
Posted Monday, July 28, 2008, at 6:58 PM ET
From www.slate.com

Barack Obama was vague about key trade issues during his recent trip to Europe, according to an analysis published in Friday's New York Times. The article referred specifically to the 11-year European ban on importing chlorinated chickens from the United States, a sanction that "is less about safety than about taste." Does chlorine really make our chickens taste funky?

It might. In 1999, researchers at the University of Georgia conducted a thorough taste comparison of chlorinated vs. nonchlorinated chicken. The researchers made light- and dark-meat patties out of both treated and nontreated meat, then baked and refrigerated them. An eight-member panel was trained in the use of a standard taste-intensity scale and then sampled reheated portions of the patties over the course of four days. The panelists tested for several distinct aromatics: "chickeny," "meaty," "rancid," and "warmed-over." On the initial day of testing—before the patties had been refrigerated—there was no significant difference in taste between any of the patties. But by the fourth day of testing, the chemically treated patties tasted significantly more reheated than the nontreated ones.

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