Chill Out; That’s Word on Frozen Poultry : Consumerism: Out-of-state poultry producers battle California law defining ‘fresh.’

WASHINGTON — Ever reach for a fresh turkey in the meat bin and find it feels a little hard--even icy? Shouldn’t it be sold as a frozen bird?

Nope.

Federal regulations allow poultry to be chilled to nearly zero Fahrenheit and still be called fresh.

A California law taking effect Jan. 1 will change that notion. That is, unless the National Broiler Council, the Arkansas Poultry Federation and the American Meat Industry succeed in getting a federal judge in Sacramento to stop it.

Their lawsuit argues that the law is an effort by California poultry farmers to block competition from farms in Arkansas and other parts of the Southeast and East where the industry is concentrated.

California’s poultry industry contends people risk being cheated by a law that permits birds to be frozen to a near solid state.

“Consumers if they see a rock-hard chicken assume that’s a frozen chicken,” said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Industry Federation. “It’s just basic common sense.”

Agriculture Department policy says a product can’t be labeled as fresh if it’s been previously frozen.

But federal law says food isn’t frozen unless it’s taken down to zero degrees or lower--the level at which most foods can be frozen and kept for a long time.

“Our position is that if the product is not frozen then it must be fresh,” said John McCutcheon, deputy administrator for regulatory programs at the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. “By implication, then, any product that is above zero degrees and has never gone below zero degrees can be labeled fresh.”

The California law says a bird can’t be called fresh if it has reached an internal temperature of 25 degrees or below, or if it has been stored at that temperature or below for more than 24 hours.

Water freezes at 32 degrees and poultry can be anywhere from 58% water for a medium turkey to 71% for a broiler. But because the fluids in a bird have other material, it really doesn’t start to freeze until about 28 degrees.

At 27 or 28, “you just get some slush buildup in it,” said George K. York, a microbiologist at the University of California, Davis. Below that, water turns solid. At 0-25, science says the bird is frozen.

George Watts, president of the National Broiler Council, says the industry tries to keep poultry at 28 degrees during shipping. On cross-country trips that take two to four days, parts of the truck have to be set cooler than 25 so the warmest part doesn’t exceed 28.

What most companies do is blast their birds with cold air that quickly freezes the outside and the first quarter-inch. Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc., the nation’s largest chicken producer, uses that process, known as “crust-freezing.”

“It doesn’t really get frozen; it just puts a layer on the edge, which increases shelf life,” said Sarah G. Birkhold, poultry specialist at Texas A&M; University.

The cold surface seals off oxygen, which can cause poultry to spoil, she explained. The process has no impact on the quality of the bird, she said.

All meat should be kept below at least 45 degrees, preferably 40, she said. A bird that is absolutely fresh will last 7 to 10 days without spoiling if kept refrigerated. A “crust-frozen” bird will last 16 to 20 days.

Still, shoppers should cook their birds one or two days after purchase to account for the shelf life used up during storage and shipping, Birkhold said.

The California law would permit crust-freezing to continue.

Although California has raised the fresh-frozen debate to a legal one, at least one major poultry company has made it a marketing issue.

Maryland-based Perdue Farms Inc., the nation’s fourth-largest poultry company, says it doesn’t use crust freezing.

The company, which sells only east of Chicago, has been running an ad for four years in which founder Frank Perdue hammers a nail with a competitor’s fresh-labeled chicken.