Plucking and butchering chickens with strange chemicals
Supported by super-fast cleaning tools: machines, chemicals... the process of plucking ducks and chickens is shortened super fast while the service provider earns a lot of money.
Recently, a series of information about ready-made poultry being injected with water and soaked in chemicals to increase weight has made housewives wary of this product. With the professionalism and dedicated service attitude of the slaughter "experts", housewives can be satisfied with the quick slaughter and feather cleaning service within just a few minutes at a very "affordable" price.
Surveying in Cau Giay area (Hanoi), reporters noted that in each market there are 1-2 shops providing services of cleaning feathers, slaughtering chickens, ducks, geese...
Plucking feathers, cleaning intestines... making millions
Ms. Thu (a chicken supplier at Dich Vong market, Cau Giay, Hanoi) said: Shops specializing in selling chickens and ducks always include the step of killing and plucking for hire. Especially, during peak times (end of the month), many people have the concept of eating duck to "get rid of bad luck", so more and more customers come to hire them. According to observations, in less than 10 minutes, there were about 5 people buying and hiring them to slaughter and pluck the feathers on the spot for 10,000-15,000 VND/bird.
Scene of slaughtering chickens and ducks at Dich Vong market, Cau Giay.
There are peak days when she can’t do it all by herself, even with the help of machines, so Thu has to mobilize her whole family to participate. Peak day income can reach nearly 2 million VND, not to mention the profit from selling live poultry to customers. Thu added that the number of poultry sold to individual customers each day is several dozen, not to mention the days when customers buy in large quantities, so almost the whole family hangs around the market serving customers to earn money. This is the main income of her family.
Unlike Ms. Thu, Ms. Ha (Cau Dien market, Tu Liem, Hanoi) specializes only in plucking and slaughtering poultry. Ms. Ha said that the characteristic of suburban markets is that most of the sellers are not professional. Some people bring to the market only a few chickens, a few dozen eggs, a few bunches of homegrown vegetables, and sell them if they can't finish eating them. Therefore, they don't have the tools to slaughter. Ms. Ha has been providing this service for 4 years now.
She said that before, there was no machine to help clean the feathers of chickens and ducks, so she had to do it all by hand. However, now, she only needs to invest in a honeycomb charcoal stove, a large pot to boil water, a small knife to handle the feathers... and she can comfortably practice her job. She remembers that when she first started doing this job, by the time she got home at night, the skin on her ten fingertips was almost gone due to being soaked in water too much and she could only clean 15-20 birds a day. Later, more and more people came to hire her to clean the feathers, so she decided to invest more than 5 million VND to buy a poultry plucking machine from
Ms. Ha excitedly shared: “After being dipped in water with a temperature of approximately 100 degrees Celsius, the poultry is put into the machine, started running for about 5 minutes to complete the plucking process. At that time, I just need to clean the gizzards and deliver them to the customer. Each bird only takes 10-15 minutes.” She revealed that since having the support of the machine, she can receive 40-50 birds/day, the “lowest” income is about 300,000 VND/day or more.
As for the big suppliers in the market, most of them provide on-site feather plucking services when supplying poultry. This service fee is calculated in addition to the cost of purchasing poultry. However, Ms. Thu said that for regular customers who often order in large quantities, the store will waive the feather plucking and slaughtering fees to retain customers...
“Super fast” chicken slaughter thanks to… strange chemicals
Ms. Thu added that in the past, she also learned from some owners at wholesale markets to use a "super-fast" poultry cleaning chemical. This chemical is called "consumer wax". Just one pot of pre-mixed chemicals can clean the feathers of dozens of birds. Because this is an extremely strong chemical, sellers have more leisure than doing it manually or using a plucking machine because "chickens and ducks cleaned this way look beautiful and attractive to consumers" - Ms. Thu said.
Close-up of strange chemical bucket used to dip chicken and duck.
However, if the dosage is not familiar, the chemical will penetrate into every pore and harden. When the seller peels off this chemical layer, if not careful, it will peel off the poultry's skin. Since the Ministry of Health issued a directive banning the use of this toxic chemical, her shop has returned to the familiar feather removal machine technology. She said: "Although it is not as clean as using chemicals, using a machine will ensure safety for consumers."
On the other hand, her shop is also a source of chicken for wedding parties of some restaurants and hotels, so food safety is always a top priority. There are days when customers order a lot, she can't keep up with the work, sometimes even having to mobilize the whole family to help make the goods in time to deliver to customers. "With such a large quantity, the slaughtering cost is usually included in the purchase price for customers. As for regular customers, I often give discounts on the labor cost to keep them," she said.
According to Ms. Thu, it is not difficult to buy this chemical, the seller just needs to buy rosin which is widely sold in markets for 60,000 - 80,000 VND/kg. If you want to make chickens and ducks more shiny after plucking feathers, you can buy wax for 50,000 - 60,000 VND/kg and mix them together in a ratio of 3:1, you can easily have a perfect pot of chemicals to clean a few dozen birds in a short time.
Another poultry shop owner said that with this “chemical”, she can reduce the time and increase the productivity of poultry slaughtering. Dipping in this chemical only takes about 2-3 minutes to clean the feathers of a poultry. This method is “super fast” than machines, because of its ability to clean thoroughly. When seeing the reporter expressed concern about the “super fast” cleaning chemical that can affect the health of consumers, the shop owner answered calmly: “After plucking the feathers, the chickens and ducks are washed clean, the washing water will wash away all the “chemicals” on the poultry. If there is any remaining on the poultry meat, when cooking at high temperatures, no matter how toxic it is, it will be completely destroyed.”
However, the owner of this store added that since the market management force has regularly reminded to handle cases of using chemicals to clean the feathers of chickens and ducks "super fast", most stores do not dare to use chemicals or if they do use them, they do so secretly. Then the owner lowered his voice and whispered: "It is forbidden, but the ready-made chickens and ducks sold outside are still all used with chemicals to clean the feathers quickly!"
According to VPChinhphu-M
