A win for the industry in the fight against chicken myths

The Australian Chicken Meat Federation, the chicken industry body, recently had a complaint upheld against A Current Affair, regarding stories which have purposefully communicated incorrect information about chicken meat.

Channel Nine’s A Current Affair was found guilty by the Australian Communications and Media Authority of misrepresenting an interviewee from the Australian Chicken Meat Federation.

The breach from A Current Affair relates to fair representation and the accuracy of information broadcast on 17 July 2006. The Channel Nine program presented cases of fluorescent and green chicken which they claimed to be harmful towards consumers, when they knew at the time of broadcasting, that this was not the case.

During the interview the spokesman from the Australian Chicken Meat Federation said that he did not know why chickens turned green. After discussing the situation with a veterinary poultry expert, he later informed the program it was simply a natural condition occasionally found in some chickens which affected the colour of the meat, but posed absolutely no danger to consumers.

A Current Affair failed to accurately represent the spokesman by stating that he did not know what caused the chicken to turn green. Andreas Dubs, The Australian Chicken Meat Federation Executive Director reinforces that stories like this trigger unnecessary stress for poultry consumers, with flow-on affects for chicken processors, their employees, farmers and retailers.

This is the second complaint upheld against A Current Affair in the past 12 months. The government media and communications watchdog have also found that the program did not present the correct information about bacteria in chicken meat.

This is a fantastic win for the poultry industry in the fight against myths. The chicken meat industry’s main goal is to produce healthy food and to make sure all birds are healthy and disease free.