Growth hormones added to chicken feed have been said to produce not only larger, plumper chickens but to contaminate the food chain putting lovers of 'the white meat' at risk for various health conditions, including cancers.
However, the local poultry industry say that their chicken is hormone-free and one chicken producer, Jamaica Broilers Group, has indicated that their products will now carry 'hormone-free' labels.
"Hormones tend to produce a bulkier bird and especially in America, they go for the breast and leg meat in that industry, so they want to boost breast meat and to tenderise it. We question the use of hormone ... the American market prefer bigger birds but our market doesn't really go for that, we go for the three to 3.5-pound birds," said Dr. Nigel Elliot, senior veterinarian, Jamaica Broilers Group, the producers of the Best Dressed Chicken.
That company's president and chief executive officer, Robert Levy, last week announced that its packaged chicken will now carry the hormone-free label, an action spurred on by trends toward healthier eating habits and heightened concerns by local consumers about the rearing of chicken.
Hormone treatment banned
He said categorically that no hormones or preservatives are used in the growing process of local birds and that this was a decision taken "from the early beginning of the group."
However, Dr. Keith Amiel, manager, corporate affairs, Caribbean Broilers Group, producers of CB chicken, the main local competitors to the Jamaica Broilers Group, in confirming that his company's chicken products are also hormone-free, said that hormones have not been used in the local poultry industry since the 1940s.
"As far as I know, hormone treatment of any category was banned in the 1970s and remain banned here in Jamaica. In order to import it (the chicken hormone) you need to get a permit and no such permit is being issued for hormones in chicken. Caribbean Broilers was established not even 20 years ago, so we have not been using hormones," he said.
He said that in the 1940s and '50s the hormone, oestrogen, was used to produce larger birds weighing eight to 10 pounds, for Christmas period to give consumers the option to eat chicken for Christmas dinner instead of turkey. The oestrogen, the same female hormone, produces bigger breasts in chicken and helps the bird to retain water.
"What we now have is a lot of propaganda from vegetarians and primarily from a number of individuals who want to sell their vegetables and herbal products as neutraceuticals ... trying to relate certain conditions to hormones in poultry," Dr. Amiel said. "It serves the purpose of selling their products. We chose to ignore it because it is propaganda."
What then accounts for the faster growing and plumper chickens on the market? Dr. Amiel said it's all about advancement in technology, especially in genetic research and environmental control.
"Because of genetic research we have chicken that can grow two to three times faster than chicken a few years ago. They are healthier, more resistant to disease, they are growing faster and as a result their meat is leaner," he said.
On the environment side, Dr. Amiel said that chickens are being fed higher quality feeds with soya bean, corn and wheat.
"We have also been able to incorporate trace elements vitamins including antioxidants and omega-3-fatty acids in animal feed producing faster growing and healthier chicken," he said.
"So people who don't understand science and technology, the mumbo jumboists say how can they grow so fast, and this is where all the superstition is coming in about the use of hormones," said Dr. Amiel.
He said that the poultry industry had also made one further advancement in controlling its birds from the ravages of the weather overheating, coldness, wind, rain, dust or allergens and it was for this reason that 85 per cent of chicken houses remained intact during Hurricane Ivan in September, compared to 85 per cent of houses being destroyed during Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.
