‘Restrictions will hurt sector’

NEW restrictions on brine-injected chicken portions would hurt the industry and be hard to enforce, poultry producers said yesterday. Individual cuts of chicken could comprise 15 percent of fat and salt solutions, injected in a process known as brining, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said. It said the government previously had not put a limit on brine-injected portions. Brine can make up as much as 10 percent of whole birds, up from 8 percent previously, according to the department. “We want regulations that are technically valid, enforceable and economically realistic,” SA Poultry Association chief executive Kevin Lovell said on Tuesday. “The current draft does not fit those criteria. Our business will get smaller and sell less, then the price will start to rise in the supermarkets where people buy,” he said. The new requirements were being phased in over six months, it said. – Bloomberg