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Farm chicken dyed to become 'kampung chicken'
How do you choose chicken when you are shopping in a wet market?If you usually pick those with bright yellow skin colour, you might then have bought dyed farm chickens!A Sin Chew Daily reader who has been a poultry trader for decades claimed that many consumers have mistakenly thought that those chicken with bright yellow skin and flesh were "kampung chicken"
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How do you choose chicken when you are shopping in a wet market?
If you usually pick those with bright yellow skin colour, you might then have bought dyed farm chickens!
A Sin Chew Daily reader who has been a poultry trader for decades claimed that many consumers have mistakenly thought that those chicken with bright yellow skin and flesh were "kampung chicken". In fact, some of them were farm chicken dyed with industrial pigment.
The trader pointed out that some poultry operators actually dyed farm chicken with pigment to change the chicken's appearance and deceive consumers. Some might have even used industrial pigment Aniline to serve the purpose, instead of the currently approved food colouring.
"The move was intended to attract customers, as the Chinese prefer chicken with yellowish skin while consumers of other racial groups have no such preference," the trader said.
According to a chemical expert, since fat-soluble dyes instead of water-soluble dyes were used, the colour would not be washed away with water.
"Consumers can remove the skin, but Aniline might have penetrated into the flesh with fat," the chemical expert added.
Persatuan Peniaga Ayam Itik Selangor/Wilayah Persekutuan vice-president Yap Chau Hen admitted that a a small number of poultry operators indeed dyed chicken with "yellow water" and it usually took place in wet markets offering freshly slaughtered chickens and mostly visited by Chinese consumers.
The Sin Chew Daily had sent the yellow powder suspected to have used by poultry operators to dye chicken for examination and the results indicated that the yellow powder contained 6mg/kg of Aniline. Meanwhile, it was also clearly stated on the bottle containing the yellow powder that the yellow pigment should be used only for industrial purposes.
The Sin Chew Daily has informed the Health Ministry's food safety and quality division senior director Noraini Mohd Othman about the incident. She promised a research and officials were also sent for investigation.
