Water content in poultry meat
Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR) is the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for the investigation of the water content of poultry meat. For poultry meat, a maximum (trade) limit has been established to protect consumers and benevolent producers against poultry meat with too high (added) water content.
Free trade
In the EU, food trade is free among member states, meaning each state must trust other members' safety and quality of products. To ensure that harmful substances or microbial hazards are absent from the food, hygiene standards are met, and the products meet trade quality demands, various parameters are monitored in the country of origin through sampling.
Determination of water, protein and their ratio
When inspecting poultry meat for water content, it is important to not only determine the water content using the reference method but also to test for protein levels and calculate the water-to-protein ratio. This ratio is used to determine whether a particular batch of poultry meat is acceptable or not. The guidelines for these methods are outlined in Regulation (EG) Nr. 543/2008.
The NRL is responsible for the correct execution of methods by the official laboratories (OLs) and carries out quality control checks to ensure that the OLs achieve statistically comparable outcomes.
Trends in water content poultry meat
In addition to these tasks, WFSR closely monitors the water-to-protein ratio trends in samples from both Dutch and imported products that enter the EU market through Dutch ports. Moreover, research is conducted to determine if the current regulations are sufficient in detecting fraudulent adulteration of poultry meat with water.