oh and check
Food Myths
Old–fashioned myths about food still dominate many Australian consumers’ eating habits.
In research conducted by the AFGC in October 2001, the nation’s top three food myths—unsafe to refreeze meat after it has been thawed, red food colouring makes children hyperactive and chickens are fed growth hormones—all were wrong!
3. Chickens are often given growth hormones to improve production
Unfortunately, a large number of people in Australia still believe that chickens are fed hormones. In part, this stems from a television program in July 1985 in which hormonal abnormalities in young women in the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico were linked to feeding of hormones (oestrogen) to chickens.
Without actually saying so, the story implied that the feeding of oestrogen to chickens was a common practice worldwide—and indeed a practice followed in Australia.
However, the feeding of oestrogen to chickens was banned in Australia in the early 1960s—more than four decades ago.
In order to maintain consumer confidence in poultry products, the Commonwealth Government’s National Residue Survey (NRS) regularly tests for growth hormones. No residues have ever been detected. NRS test results can be obtained from the NRS website
www.nrs.gov.au/residues/residues.html or by calling (02) 6272 3446.
80% of people surveyed believed this myth to be true.
