Latest scam on consumers: waterlogged chickens

Santo Domingo.- Consumers realized being scammed with frozen chickens, when unscrupulous processors “inject water in excess” to raise their weight. It’s then sold to a public generally unsupervised, contrary to what occurs with pork and beef, which together with chicken are the three top meats consumed.

That added water, which weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon raises the price of that meat as much as RD$280 on each dozen chickens, which the processors pocket.

Internationally markets allow no more than 12% water in one chicken.

Consumers must also decide on "with and without baggage" that is to say the entrails, usually wrapped inside the bird, also called the "giblet," and can even include the neck and feet, shunned in developed countries, where frozen chickens in supermarkets are very rare.