Ewww.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/22/1079939581660.html

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[quote]

One vital nugget of information: product may not contain chicken

By Kirsty Needham
March 23, 2004

Warm, bite-sized and sort-of white, they are the favoured fast food of
millions of children who believe they are eating chicken.

Twenty-five years after the first boneless, reconstituted chunk was sold
to McDonald's by a supplier, the chicken nugget leads sales of "value-
added" poultry products.

It is a "McFrankenstein creation", according to the New York judge who,
in a court case involving McDonald's last year, identified a long list
of nugget ingredients, including "anti-foaming agent".

A large Australian chicken processor describes a nugget as a mouthful of
batter, water, soybean (sometimes passing as chicken), skin, fat and -
entirely dependent on how much you've paid - chicken meat particles.

In 2002, the Australian Consumers Association tested 14 popular nugget
brands. The study found chicken filling often made up less than half of
each nugget. Fat per average serve was as high as 31 grams. And none
contained real chicken chunks, but "manufactured" or "formed" chicken.

The consumer group wants tougher labelling. "The labels won't say if 57
per cent chicken is a nice piece of chicken breast or skin and off-
cuts," says its food policy officer, Clare Hughes.

Philip Tana, manager of operations and part-owner of Red Rooster, does
not like the term "manufactured" chicken. "We prefer 'further-
processed' chicken. The chicken is still grown and they then harvest the
meat."

Red Rooster nuggets are 56 per cent "formed" chicken, but Mr Tana says
the ingredients are "not different to what any housewife or chef would
use.

"If we took them off the menu there would be an outcry."

Perth-based Canon Foods processes 80 million nuggets each year. Chief
executive Richard Pace says

chicken is ground to five-millimetre particles, then skin and soybean
added with water to make an emulsion.

Canon's nuggets vary depending on the client, with the more expensive
one containing white meat. An average nugget contains one-third batter,
up to 10 per cent water, and skin.

"Depending on the price, water can be a replacement for chicken to make
the nugget cheaper," Mr Pace says. Soybean is also often used as a
chicken substitute, but not by Canon, he says.

Steggles recently changed its nugget recipe to lower the fat and salt
level and whiten the meat.

McDonald's Australia would not comment on whether the recipe used here
was the same as that in the US, described by the New York judge as
having "twice the fat of a hamburger".

A spokeswoman said local nuggets were "65 per cent chicken".

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I REALLY don't think I want "chicken" nuggets any more.
This is disgusting.