Not just chicken, basically anything that says "VALUE ADDED" on it. The saltwater is the value.
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
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Hard to believe 500 milligrams of sodium has no taste. I've boiled lots of chicken and theres never been enough salt to taste in it without I add a lot
The water cooks out very fast and I'll bet the salt largely goes with it.
At least chicken is salt brined, ready for owen.
... in the US.
In Finland too!
"with added water" is pretty commonly added after the chicken, pork, whatever in the ingredients list here in Estonia.
Soylent Red when?
if your soylent is red in the middle you need to cook it longer.
People didn't know this?
Also to help packaging n shelf life. Chicken production and processing facilities are both morally and biologically disgusting.
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Air chilled chicken does not have the same brine issue. I've only ever seen it sold as organic, but it is worth it to avoid the brine issues.
same with prepacked bacon. fuck you foster farms.
The only bacon I buy now is thick stuff from Costco (there are two or three brands that are good at my local one), or from a butcher shop. and not even all the stuff from Costco is decent, they still carry the shitty watered down thin fatty stuff.
nothing else is worth it. I will gladly pay $22/kg for bacon that doesn't suck and two slices are an actual serving rather than $24/kg for a tiny shitty 400g package that contains basically just one serving. but I'm also buying it only occasionally in the first place.
I'm $75 away from smoking my own
In the US they do. In Canada it's illegal.
Yup, here in the EU illegal as well.
Not EU-wide then. Pork/chicken "with added water" is pretty common here in Estonia. Usually pre-flavored meat cuts and such. If it's completely fresh, unseasoned meat, then usually there's no water listed, so hopefully that does in fact mean they don't add water.
Here's one manufacturer's product with ingredients translated
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There are valid reasons to brine a chicken, this is just an extreme way to do so. The salt affects how muscle proteins behave during cooking, partially it prevents them contracting too much, thus in turn preventing the muscles from squeezing out so much liquid that they become dry. lower temperature cooking for a longer time can achieve the same effect and won’t dilute the flavor of the chicken.
Any reasonable step of preparation like brining poultry can be taken too far or done excessively, especially by companies seeking to maximize shareholder value by selling as little product as possible for the highest price. pre-brining chicken isn’t always bad, but it’s not always what you want.
I remember growing up seeing Foster Farms commercials saying they don't do this. It was the main theme of nearly all their ads.
When I was a teenager, I got a job at the local Foster Farms plant. My job was part of the process of injecting the chicken with saline. 😬
teenage you:
Bruh
My job was part of the process of injecting the chicken with
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Mandatory "in the US".
While this one is technically legal in the EU, it would require labeling the salty water as an ingredient if it changes the weight significantly.
Aren't they doing it with shrimps and Salomon in the eu?
It's labeled in the US. You'll see language like "may contain up to N% x, y, z solution" etc.
However that would require us to read
I read this comment but don't have time to read labels on everything I eat
I can assure you that meat in the Netherlands is also filled up with water. Pretty much all meat sold in the super markets will when cooked first release the water, causing the meat to boil for a bit before it is evaporated. They don't have to mention it on the packaging if it's below 5%, which means in reality it's closer to 10%. Since the Netherlands exports a lot of meat, it'll be all over at least Europe.
Meat, in general, has a lot of water. It having water is not evidence of this technique. If your meat somehow doesn't have water then you need to be extra concerned.
Sure, but the water tends to come out during freezing, and to make up for that, they inject water before hand. Like I said, anything below 5% doesn't have to be reported, which gets stretched to 10% so they can make up for the loss a second time.
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Great way to cheat the customer and also ruin recipes that don't take into consideration that cups of salt water will come out while cooking the chicken.
In Norway, chicken without added salt and water has become the norm after producers were made to inform how much of each is added. Also, one of the triopol groceries here has wholly switched from Ross chickens, so that is a good trend for animal welfare.
They also do this to beef, pork, and a bunch of other meats in the US. The higher water content is part of the reason preservation methods don't work as well.
For instance, trying to make Jerry out of water injected beef means you have to dry out the added water in addition to what was in the meat to start with, and you can't use the post drying weight to calculate if it is dry enough.
Plus poking the holes to add the water is one more vector for bacteria...
There should be a class action lawsuit against Tyson and Perdue,.etc. We pay by the pound for chicken, not saltwater.
And basically all frozen chicken in US stores has been pumped full of brine. That includes raw chicken parts that look otherwise unprocessed.
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Depending on product injecting salt water is necessary - one reason is to form it into nice shape, the other is to inhibit bacteria that could produce botulin toxin in the product.
I moved to Portugal last year and I can say that the supermarket chicken here does need a lot more seasoning (to my taste) than US chicken did. I am hoping it will help cut down my overall salt intake.
And if they add caramel, they can advertise it as salted caramel chicken! I mean, why not? Everything else is salted caramel. Disgusting stuff.
Pumpkin spice chicken?
Pumpkin Spice Chicken.
Brace for the ice limit.
While I agree salted caramel isn't great I can see why people like it, the ol salty sweet combo
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