New Chicken Labels Take Wing

The battle of the frozen chicken, subject of more bad puns than a freshman English class, is over. Last week new USDA labeling laws went into effect that prohibit any poultry product chilled to below 26 degrees from being labeled as “fresh.”

This capped a battle between California poultry farmers and their Southeastern competitors that raged for almost 10 years and that featured everything from heated congressional debate to frozen chicken bowling (the ultimate fowl ball?).

At stake was the state’s roughly $2.5-billion chicken habit. While federal regulations state that any food stored above 0 degrees can be labeled fresh, California producers had sought a labeling regulation that would raise that threshold to 26 degrees.

On the surface, the proposal makes sense, since according to most scientific testimony, a chicken--which is roughly 70% water--is frozen solid between 28 and 29 degrees.

But the proposal angered the large poultry producers of the Southeast, including Arkansas’ powerful Tyson Foods. Because of the longer distances their chickens must be trucked to reach Golden State markets, they must be chilled colder to prevent spoilage. They claimed the proposed label was an attempt by California chicken farmers to unfairly disparage their often less expensive product.

After the California legislature passed a law in 1994 enacting the temperature regulation, the National Broiler Council and the Arkansas Poultry Federation sued, arguing that states cannot pass laws that are tougher than federal regulations.

The battle went back and forth until July 1996, when the California poultry industry agreed to a compromise regulation (they had to give up their original proposal that chicken stored between 0 degrees and 26 degrees be labeled “hard chilled”).

So, today you can be assured that any chicken labeled “fresh” should have been stored above 26 degrees and that any chicken stored below 0 degrees should be labeled “frozen.” The chickens in the middle stand mute.

Carolyn Olney of the Southland Farmers Market Assn. reports that Rusty Hall, a dry-land almond farmer from near Paso Robles, has a variety of almonds and almond products available, including almond brittle, almond butter and almond flour. He sells at the Brentwood and Santa Monica markets on Wednesdays and the Westwood market on Thursdays. He also sells through a toll-free number: (888) 549-9126. Hall donates a percentage of all his sales to the Los Angeles public library’s adult literacy program.