In the mid-90s, domestic markets were filled with cheap and therefore extremely popular products, which the country so badly needed at that time. Chicken legs originally from the United States of America have become a favorite dish of compatriots who did not ask questions about the secret of such a suspiciously low price of the product.
The so-called "Bush legs" - chicken legs, which got their name after the American president signed an agreement with Mikhail Gorbachev on the supply of frozen products to the territory of the then Russia, were cheaper than domestic chicken legs by more than 10-15 points and covered the country's needs for chicken meat by more than than 60 percent. Interestingly, the Americans themselves have always preferred to eat more dietary, less fatty and high-calorie white meat, which is usually referred to as breasts. The rest of the chicken is not popular and is used to feed pets or … imported into other countries.
The secret of cheapness
Experts say that such a low price for products brought from the United States is quite understandable: the volume of chicken produced in the country is simply stunning. The chickens themselves grow very quickly thanks to the use of special growth enhancers, and simply steroids, usually used to quickly build muscle mass.
The meat of American chickens, as a rule, has a yellowish tint. This is due to the inclusion of corn and soybeans, meat and bone meal into the feed. The cost of this type of raw material is considered the lowest, and the cultivation technology is the most efficient in terms of American standards. By the way, at Russian poultry farms, it is customary to use wheat and barley, which, of course, are much more environmentally friendly and safer both for the chickens themselves and for the health of people consuming their meat.
Pumped up mass
It is interesting to consider the technology of pumping, or increasing the mass of legs, which is commonly used in the United States. A special injection device fills the carcass with a special soy liquid, which is generally considered harmless to the human body, but can increase the weight of the same leg by an average of 40% or more. That is, American chicken legs are almost half soy.
It is thanks to the above factors, even for a person who does not have an economic education, that the reason for such a low cost of the notorious American chicken legs, the import of which to Russia has been practically reduced to naught, becomes obvious.
