If you find yourself needing breast reduction surgery don't blame the roast chook you just ate, the Poultry Industry Association of New Zealand says.The association's Executive Director Michael Brooks has sent out a media advisory outlining how journalist
If you find yourself needing breast reduction surgery don’t blame the roast chook you just ate, the Poultry Industry Association of New Zealand says.
The association’s Executive Director Michael Brooks has sent out a media advisory outlining how journalists are making his job difficult by writing bogus horror stories about hormones in chickens.
“From time to time the Poultry Industry Association notices clusters of media stories pushing the old urban myth about hormones in chickens causing various enlargements or in some cases shrinkage,” he said.
“In the past few weeks hormone infused chicken has been blamed for men seeking more breast reductions in Southland and Canterbury and for the girls and women of Rotorua requiring larger bras.
“While that may be disturbing for the partners of the Southern men (and possibly damaging to Southern egos) and a bonus for lingerie stores in Rotorua, neither problem has anything to do with chicken.”
He said the use of growth-promoting hormones has been banned in the New Zealand poultry industry for more than 30 years.
In fact, poultry is the only meat routinely tested for the presence of hormones in New Zealand and artificially introduced hormones have never been found.
And you can’t blame non-New Zealand chickens since imports of poultry are banned in this country.
“While it may make a snappy sound bite or mildly amusing quote, hormones aren’t fed to New Zealand chickens.”
