Southern Producers Sue to Block State Law on Fresh Chicken
The nation’s biggest chicken processors Thursday sued the state Department of Food and Agriculture to block implementation of a state law that effectively prevents them from selling fresh chicken in California.
The law defines a fresh chicken as one that has never had an internal temperature below 25 degrees, or one that has never been held below 25 degrees for more than 24 hours. Chicken processors in the South ship chickens in trucks cooled to 25 degrees. The trip to California from Arkansas or Texas, where many processors are located, takes two to three days.
California processors can ship their chicken at 25 degrees and still comply with the law because they travel relatively short distances.
The law takes effect Jan. 1.
In its lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, the National Broiler Council charged that the law was intended to protect California growers, who have been losing sales to low-cost competitors from the South. The council said the California law violates the federal Poultry Protection Act and the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The suit says the California law prevents Southern processors from competing in the state’s $2.5-billion market because “there is little or no consumer demand for poultry products” not marketed as fresh. The council is seeking an injunction against implementing the law and a ruling overturing it.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Food and Agriculture said the department hadn’t received the suit and had no comment.
The Broiler Council represents the nation’s leading chicken growers and processors, including Tyson, Con-Agra, Pilgrim, Hudson and Randall Foods. Ironically, its members also include California growers Zacky Farms and Foster Farms, which sponsored the law.
A spokesman for the California Poultry Federation, representing Zacky and Foster, welcomed the suit and said he hoped it would lead to a federal definition of fresh. U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations permit chickens with an internal temperature above 0 degrees to be labeled fresh. Experts say chicken freezes at 28 degrees.
