Why are there chemicals in fresh chicken?

Did it ever occur to you that there might be chemicals added to fresh chicken? no? Me neither! I don't always pay attention to ingredients lists in the grocery store. Especially in things that really shouldn't have much on the list. Like chicken. 

After work one day and in a hurry to get home, I stopped at the store and grabbed a few things. One of those things was chicken. For whatever reason I didn't cook it that night and 2 days later I pull it out of the refrigerator. I'm absolutely sure it's on it's last day so I look at the label and this is what I see:

7 days left! How is that even possible???? (Store and manufacturer blocked out to protect those who are only in it for the $$)  So of course I look a little closer and read this:

Chemicals in store bought chicken

See where it says **CHICKEN BROTH INGREDIENTS: ? Now I don't really think that chicken broth can be an ingredient in chicken broth...after all ingredients are generally single items combined to form a more complex item and if it has it's own ingredient list...oh never mind, I'm sure you get it! 

Further down on that list is something called Carrageenan. Maybe this explains it, after all I have no idea what Carrageenan is....so off to Wikipedia I go for a definition.

Carrageenans or carrageenins are a family of linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red seaweeds.

Here's what it breaks down to, it's a vegan answer to gelatin. (which certainly doesn't explain why it merits adding to chicken!) But now I want to know what Polysaccharides are so I follow that link to:  
Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. 

Apparently I can follow links all day and get no closer to actually understanding WTH is in my chicken! I don't have a degree in science. I'm not a chemist. I don't get it! I did find this blog that explained it to me a little better Carrageenan: a food additive that's not as safe as you think. 

This all comes down to: I just want to know why the chicken I'm feeding my family is anything more then chicken? What gives them the right to put this stuff in my food and not have a HUGE notation of it on the label? (can they possibly make it harder to read that small print?) Why on earth do I need chicken to be fresh for more then a week? Oh right....so those companies who's names I blacked out would make more money. My bad.

You may have noticed that we don't sell meat birds at our hatchery. I don't think that will change. I'm not a fan of raising meaties for myself, though I will butcher a problem rooster if need be! I'm not saying you have to 'butcher your own' or anything like that. I'm just pointing out that something many of us take for granted "fresh chicken is just chicken" may not be. I visited the same store again and found fresh chicken without the additives for an extra $1 a lb, but it was just chicken. 

Apparently I needed to open my eyes a little bit more. (I hope you heard the sarcasm in that statement)

Now I will point out again that I'm not a chemist or anything even close so if I misunderstood these ingredients please feel free to let me know. Honestly, I'm hoping somebody can prove me wrong! I will be happy to correct or remove this blog.

Here's how it looks to me: companies add things to food to keep them fresher longer and keep the cost down. Those who cannot afford to spend more for the same foods end up consuming larger quantities of questionable ingredients which may or may not cause health problems. hmmm. At the very least I think they need a bigger warning and really, if the rest of the label is in both English and Spanish, why not the ingredient list? That just smacks of rudeness to me! 

What do you think? Should things like this be added to "fresh" chicken? Should there be more of a warning on the package?

~L 

Want gardening and healthy living information sent right to your email weekly? Click right here to join my newsletter list and get new posts sent directly to you the day they're published!