Animal welfare changes better for Thai products

Wattie's Chicken with Lite Mayo $3.29 for 160g.

Thailand’s battery-raised chooks have better life than NZ’s but canned product has additives in mayonnaise, Wendyl Nissen writes.

I still can't quite get used to seeing canned chicken on the shelf along with the tuna and sardines.

But my daughter assures me that lots of her friends eat it and find it handy to take to school for lunch.

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Last time I looked at canned chicken the news wasn't good. But this time I was surprised to find that things have changed.

Ingredients

Bull; Marinated chicken (80%) [chicken breast, water, sunflower oil, sugar thickener (1442), salt] - This product is made in Thailand so that's where the chicken will be from. There is no evidence on the label to indicate otherwise. Nor is there any claim to be free range chicken. So you are buying chicken which has been raised in Thailand in battery conditions. But the news isn't all bad.

When I last looked at canned chicken from Thailand in 2011 there were no animal welfare laws in that country but since then a law has been passed which goes some way to ensuring there is less cruelty to livestock. And according to the British RSPCA, Thai poultry have more space than in the UK and in New Zealand. In Thailand they have around 13 chickens per square metre compared with our Animal Welfare (Meat Chickens) Code of Welfare 2012 which allows for 38kg or about 21 chickens per square metre if their slaughter weight is 1.8kg. Chickens in Thailand also have more rest with six hours of continuous darkness compared with our four hours of darkness.

In 2011 Thailand exported 441,000 tonnes of processed chicken.

Chicken breast is a good source of protein and in this can you will get 16.4g per 80g serve (each can has two serves).

• Lite mayonnaise (20%) [water, sunflower oil, thickeners (1442, 415), vinegar, sugar, egg yolk, salt, food acid (330)] - There are the usual ingredients for mayonnaise in here such as egg yolks and oil but there are many more. Water, thickeners hydroxyl-propyl distarch phosphate (1442) and xanthan gum (415), vinegar, sugar, salt and citric acid (330).

If you made this at home you'd use egg yolks, oil and maybe some mustard.

Highlights

• Battery chicken from Thailand which has better conditions than in New Zealand.
• Thailand now has animal welfare legislation to protect livestock.
• Contains mayonnaise made with additives.

My recommendations

I came into this column fully prepared to denounce chicken produced in Thailand but my research has told me that battery chickens actually have a better life in Thailand. So if you're okay with battery chicken imported from another country then that's fine.

But I would prefer you ate free-range, New Zealand-grown chicken because every time you buy this product you are using your consumer power to encourage the producers who bother to free range to make some money and the supermarkets which stock them.

I found this product difficult to eat. The chicken squares had a strange texture and the mayonnaise tasted weird.

I realise that busy people on the run might find this a great lunch snack or filling for sandwiches. But with a little extra effort you could easily cook a chicken breast and keep it in your fridge, covered for two days.

Buy some quality mayonnaise or make it yourself to skip the additives. I guarantee it will taste better.

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