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With a
population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens
in the world than any other bird. They provide two sources of food
frequently consumed by humans: their meat, and their eggs.
The meat of
the chicken, also called "chicken," is a type of poultry.
Because of its relatively low cost among meats, chicken is one of the
most used meats in the world. Nearly all parts of the bird can be
used for food, and the meat is cooked in many different ways around
the world. Popular chicken dishes include fried chicken, chicken
soup, marinated chicken wings, tandoori chicken, butter chicken, and
chicken rice. Chicken is also a staple of fast food restaurants such
as KFC (most products), McDonald's (chicken sandwiches/burgers,
chicken nuggets) and Burger King. Chicken has a fairly neutral
flavour and texture, and is used as a reference point for describing
other foods; many are said to 'taste like chicken' if they are indistinctive.
History
The first
pictures of chickens in Europe are found on Corinthian pottery of the
7th century BC. The poet Cratinus (mid-5th century BC, according to
the later Greek author Athenaeus) calls the chicken "the Persian
alarm". In Aristophanes's comedy The Birds (414 BC) a chicken is
called "the Median bird", which points to an introduction
from the East. Pictures of chickens are found on Greek red figure and black-figure
pottery.
In ancient
Greece, chickens were still rare and were a rather prestigious food
for symposia. Delos seems to have been a centre of chicken breeding.
An early
domestication of chickens in Southeast Asia is probable, since the
word for domestic chicken (*manuk) is part of the reconstructed
Proto-Austronesian language (see Austronesian languages). Chickens,
together with dogs and pigs, were the domestic animals of the Lapita
culture, the first Neolithic culture of Oceania.
Chickens were
spread by Polynesian seafarers and reached Easter Island in the 12th
century AD, where they were the only domestic animal, with the
possible exception of the Polynesian Rat (Rattus exulans). They were
housed in extremely solid chicken coops built from stone. Traveling
as cargo on trading boats, they reached the Asian continent via the
islands of Indonesia and from there spread west to Europe and western Asia.
Supply Problems
In 1993 New
proposals from the Food Standards Agency to the European Commission
recommended a cap on the amount of water that may be added to
chicken, plus a ban on adding non-chicken proteins (such as beef and pork).
Under the
Agency's proposals, the amount of added water in chicken and poultry
products would be limited to 15%. Beef and pork proteins are added to
enable the product to hold very high levels of water, so if the
amount of added water were limited to 15%, the need to add
non-chicken proteins would be removed.
Standards of
chicken vary tremendously and although it is the world's most popular
'meat' it is also linked to various possible health problems that
rear their heads from time to time. As well as water to bulk up
weight, there have been issues about added salt and phosphates that
have concerned consumers.
However,
chicken remains a must for many families on lower budgets who cannot
be too choosy about quality in the face of low price. Restaurants
face the same problem but driven by commercial factors rather than
trying to feed a family. In order to keep costs down some restaurants
will be less than selective about their poultry supplier resulting in
a poor product for the customer, lack of taste and texture and even
stomach problems.
Better
restaurants use suppliers such as Dovey Premium Products (www.dppltd.co.uk)
who may not be the cheapest on the market but who can ensure quality
and reliability. This is where the finenesss of texture and taste
comes in which ultimately means more and better customers and higher profits.
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