To ask if "sliced chicken breast" is processed meat?

[rosesarered9]

I have just bought this Tesco Finest Sliced Chicken Breast And Stuffing for sandwiches. I am trying to limit my intake of processed meats to once or twice a week (Processed meats do cause cancer). It tastes GREAT and it's very convenient for me if I don't want to roast a whole chicken for sandwiches. DH asked why I buy it as it costs £2.50 for 5 slices instead of chicken ham. He said that it probably is a type of processed meat because they must have added preservatives for it to last 5 days.

Does anyone know? I have attached a picture of it.

[MysteriesOfTheOrganism]

Look at the ingredients list!

[Madbengalmum]

No,this is not processed meat, just cooked meat.
Processed meat usually comes in the form of sausages,salami,hot dogs,tinned meat etc"

[TheSparrowhawk]

Yes it is processed meat, in that it's been through a cooking/preparation process before packaging. Non-processed meat is raw meat that has simply been cut up.

[Birdsgottafly]

This is from the WHO website:
A processed meat, according to the panel, has been modified from its natural state, either “through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation.”

So that would count as processed meat.

Would you consider Quorn?

[rosesarered9]

OK
The ingredients are:
British Chicken Breast (84%), Pork, Sage and Onion Stuffing, Salt, Pork, Sage and Onion Stuffing contains: British Pork, Onion, Gluten Free Breadcrumbs, Potato Starch, Sage, Pea Fibre, Sugar, Salt, Dried Herbs, Nutmeg, Stabilisers (Tetrasodium Diphosphate, Disodium Diphosphate), White Pepper, Gluten Free Breadcrumbs contains: Rice Flour, Maize Flour, Maize Starch, Salt, Dextrose

So I can go back to eating some each day?

[MaryField]

I usually look for the word 'formed' on any sliced meat to give me an indication of how many processes the product has been through.

[rosesarered9]

It doesn't look like ham which is a processed meat, just like chicken you would normally cook at home.

[rosesarered9]

"Cooked chicken breast with a gluten free pork, sage and onion sausagemeat stuffing."
That's what is says above the ingredients list.

[rosesarered9]

www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=292991502

[NannyR]

I wouldn't class it as processed meat as it is just slices of chicken (if there is anything else like preservatives in it they should be listed in the ingredients).
If you like chicken sandwiches and eat a lot of them it would probably work out cheaper to roast a chicken, slice it up and freeze it in portions - I do this quite often with left overs and it works well, you could even freeze a slice of stuffing with each portion too!

[Madbengalmum]

Well the meat is chicken that has been cooked and has had a stuffing attached to it.
So i would still say that as the meat itself has not been altered, the chicken is cooked meat.

The defintion of processed meat, not a processed meat is very different.
Wikipedia it. Processed meat is classed as ham,salamis,sausages, tinned hotdogs etc.

[UsainWho]

I usually check for 'formed' as well. It says that on the chicken slices that are much cheaper, what my kids call flat chicken!

[MrsSlocombesPussy]

I wouldn't worry too much about the risk. Got this from the cancer research website:
People who eat low amounts of processed meats: 56 in 1000 expected to get bowel cancer
People who eat high amounts of processed meats: 66 in 1000 expected to get bowel cancer.

[rosesarered9]

Will do NannyR!

[Madbengalmum]

Coming from a family in the meat industry, sage and onion topped chicken beast is cooked meat,not processed meat. It is not reformed,reconstituted, tinned, mechanically recovered, Not processed.

[Birdsgottafly]

I'd check out the WHO website, it explains things fully.

If your going on the new guidelines that have come out. It gives the amount per week that makes a difference etc.

[pigsDOfly]

Isn't it the process of smoking and curing that causes the problems? And isn't it mainly red meats?

If that chicken isn't cured or smoked, like bacon and salami type meats, I would imagine it doesn't come under 'processed' in the problematic sense.

As pp said, look at the ingredients, and if you're really concerned find out from Tesco what exactly the processing of the chicken involves.

[NotDavidTennant]

The fact that it has salt added probably means it counts as processed. But more importantly the stuffing contains pork which has clearly been processed (just look at the list of ingredients for the stuffing).

[IAmNotAMindReader]

That's interesting Birdsgottafly Under that strict definition, as meats natural state is raw, then any cooking renders it processed meat. Wow, I wonder how that's going to fit in with increasingly zealous lunch box restrictions?

[Madbengalmum]

Iamnot, you are correct. That is far from the defintin of processed meat.

[honeyroar]

It's already crap meat though as it's battery chicken. That's not natural, healthy meat..

[harderandharder2breathe]

If you're so paranoid about what you're eating why not just buy a chicken and roast it? Probably cheaper and you control what you add to it

[trufflesnout]

I don't think the WHO would call it processed actually, because their definition of 'processed' is: meat that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation.

They're referring to things like salami and jerky mainly, cooking meat doesn't seem to count under this sense of 'altering' that the WHO have defined afaict. They do say that cooking meat in direct contact with a flame (eg barbecuing) isn't great but that other methods of cooking haven't been fully assessed.

I think they are also explicitly talking about processed red meat here (salami again), they don't mention the risks associated with processed poultry or fish, because they haven't assessed them:

www.who.int/features/qa/cancer-red-meat/en/

[FurryLittleTwerp]

how can it be "topped with stuffing?"

'stuffed with stuffing", surely...

[Cherylene]

It isn't cooked meat like the chicken you cut off your roast.

It has probably gone through a process whereby it takes on more water which makes cheap chicken meat more tender.