/oss/taxonomy/term/1422/all en /oss/article/environment-food-health-news/chicken-requires-careful-handling <p>Estimates are that some 55 million people in Canada and the U.S become ill every year from eating tainted food with more deaths attributed poultry than any other food. That of course is partly due to poultry being the most popular meat, with consumption being about 83 pounds per capita per year. Tests by Consumers Union show that virtually all chicken is contaminated by bacteria. That by itself is no great surprise. Chickens’ guts, like those of humans, are filled with all sorts of bacteria and cause no harm to the bird.</p> Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:28:01 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2067 at /oss /oss/article/science-science-everywhere/arsenic-poultry <p>If you dine on chicken McNuggets, you’ll be getting a good dose of trans fats. But at least you won’t be ingesting any arsenic. That’s because MacDonalds only buys chicken meat from producers who do not feed arsenic to their chickens. Now you’re confused. Arsenic is a poison. Why would any chicken producer want to feed it to the birds it wants to sell? Because, believe it or not, in tiny doses it causes the chickens to gain weight faster and it also protects them from parasitic infections.</p> Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:59:58 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1572 at /oss