Are there any growth hormones in meat here?

luckykitty · Post by **luckykitty** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:48 pm

Hi, are there any growth hormones used in meat or poultry here or is it banned over the EU?

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Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:01 pm

luckykitty wrote:Hi, are there any growth hormones used in meat or poultry here or is it banned over the EU?

should not be:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/chemicals ... dex_en.htm

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:08 pm

Yup, there shouldn't be, at least not in home-grown meat.

But as to whether there are plenty in South American (Br, Ven, Ur, Pa).......

There at least plenty of this meat on the supermarket shelves, means someone is buying it

Someone suggested to me that it tastes better than the Finnish stuff, but methinks it's just because it is cheaper

Buy Finnish meat, if you don't, soon it will not be available anymore.....

luckykitty · Post by **luckykitty** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:47 pm

Yeah I always buy finnish meat tho. Or at least from EU, Germany (should also be hormone free?).
I was just always wondering, cos those prepackaged marinated chicken legs (u know the ones with a lot of fat?? and they are really big), i was always wondering if the chickens were on growth hormons cos they're so big and fat. I guess they just feed them alot.. and they get no exercise :s

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:11 pm

Don't worry about the large chickens, it's normal, easily achievable without growth hormones. It's just that the industry have indirectly educated us that a chickens carcass weight should be a tad over a kilo, because they tend to kill them at around 40 days old. If they didn't, the chickens would grow much bigger, but of course they don't let them. This is because around 39 days of life is the optimum point for rearing broilers, after that point you continue to give them more food and shelter, but they don't grow so much extra meat to cover the extra cost.

Hope that makes sense, but shout if not, and I can explain further.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 8:54 pm

Legally ban on hormones applies also to imported meat (which has caused a trade dispute between EU and USA). I do not know how well the monitoring of this works in practice.

luckykitty · Post by **luckykitty** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:48 pm

Karhunkoski wrote:Don't worry about the large chickens, it's normal, easily achievable without growth hormones. It's just that the industry have indirectly educated us that a chickens carcass weight should be a tad over a kilo, because they tend to kill them at around 40 days old. If they didn't, the chickens would grow much bigger, but of course they don't let them. This is because around 39 days of life is the optimum point for rearing broilers, after that point you continue to give them more food and shelter, but they don't grow so much extra meat to cover the extra cost.

Hope that makes sense, but shout if not, and I can explain further.

Oh ok, I see!
It's weird, because in other countries when I eat chicken, the thighs don't seem to be that big. maybe they are just malnourished over there :p or maybe they get exercise outdoors. Thanks for the explaination tho!

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:14 pm

luckykitty wrote:It's weird, because in other countries when I eat chicken, the thighs don't seem to be that big.

Don't worry, it's because in other countries they always kill their broilers at the optimum point, or else they have an alternative market for those birds that they allow to live beyond 39 days (= bigger birds. burgers? nuggets?). Perhaps in Finland the market is so small that they haven't managed to work things out to the optimum, or maybe they are missing some decently trained food technologists, the two Finns I know who studied the subject elsewhere, stayed there

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