Watery chicken leads to Commerce Commission complaint

A Countdown customer posted this photo showing the amount of liquid coming out of the store's chicken. Photo / Facebook

A man fed up with the amount of water in his Countdown chicken has taken his concerns to the Commerce Commission.

Andrew Simpson took to Facebook to express his concern over the amount of water that came out of chicken bought from Countdown every time he cooked it.

Last month, he posted a photo of chicken in a frying pan in a layer of water claiming the supermarket chain was adding water to their chicken.

"TFW you're trying to make a chicken stir fry but end up with chicken soup because Countdown Supermarkets load up their Barnwell Chicken with so much extra water to increase the sell weight. C'mon guys - fair play," he posted.

Countdown acknowledged his post, apologised for the inconvenience and asked for more details so they could "follow up accordingly".

TFW you're trying to make a chicken stir fry but end up with chicken soup because Countdown Supermarkets load up their...

Posted by Andrew Simpson on Saturday, 1 July 2017

But Simpson said he was not interested in getting into the details and signalled his intent to lodge a formal complaint if it kept happening..

"This happens every time. I cook your chicken most weeks. I'd prefer not to talk about a problem I have but rather you sort the problem you have. If it keeps happening I will approach the Commerce Commission."

It seems the issue did not go away.

Fairfax reported that he submitted a complaint on Sunday after he drained 500ml of liquid from 2kg of cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast bought online from Countdown.

The Commerce Commission today confirmed it had received a complaint about the amount of liquid in chicken sold at Countdown.

A spokesman said the complaint had not yet been assessed so no decision on whether to investigate had been made.

Countdown spokeswoman Kate Porter said the company had spoken to its chicken suppliers and confirmed there was no added liquid in the fresh chicken.

The company was talking to Simpson directly to get more details about the product and how it was cooked so it could investigate further, she said.

Former chef and restaurateur Oliver Pasquale said, judging by the photo, it appeared the chicken was put into a cold pan which would bring out the moisture. The pan also looked over-crowded so the chicken was not able to seal and brown.

The Commerce Commission warned two chicken producers this year over packaging representations about the size of chickens.

The commission considered that Inghams and Tegel were likely to have made misleading representations about chicken size by including stuffing and marinade in the weight of chickens.