Fate of current brined chicken stock unknown
SOUTH Africa’s Agriculture Ministry missed a court deadline to determine if poultry producers can sell down current stocks of brined chicken before regulations that cap the amount of the liquid in birds come into affect next month.
An industry body said it was considering appealing a separate court decision not to postpone the rules’ start date.
On September 12 the High Court in Pretoria ordered that the department set up an appeals board that should hear and rule on the South African Poultry Association’s (Sapa) request on stocks by yesterday. Sapa was informed that the panel was established on September 19, but it had not set up a meeting because a member was unavailable, Kevin Lovell, the chief executive of the body, said yesterday.
Request refused Separately, the court refused yesterday the association’s request to review the new regulations and suspend the 15percent cap on brining altogether, according to Amish Kika, a lawyer at Fairbridges Wertheim Becker, who represented the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Some of the frozen chicken on the country’s supermarket shelves has brine content that exceeds this level, because it was produced before the lower cap was introduced, and if these stocks are destroyed rather than sold, R500 million to R2 billion of “safe, edible and nutritious food” will have to be thrown away, Lovell said last week. Companies affected include Astral Foods, the nation’s largest producer of frozen chicken pieces. Astral has started reducing the amount of the solution in its poultry portions to 15 percent.
Yesterday’s judgment that the regulations will start on October 22 “reflects that the minister in this instance took into account important considerations like food security alongside food safety, and accordingly considered the interest of consumers,” Kika said in response to questions.
The department is allowing RCL Foods, South Africa’s largest chicken producer, to deplete its existing stocks of chicken with brine levels exceeding 15 percent after the October 22 introduction of the cap, according to Lovell.
The court also ruled against delaying the new regulations by eight weeks to allow companies to prepare new packaging and comply with administration.
“We believe that the industry is about to suffer a major contraction, that food security will be reduced and that jobs will be reduced in our industry,” Lovell said. – Bloomberg