Rotisserie Chicken

Background:
One of the latest food fads taking supermarkets by storm is ready to eat Rotisserie Chicken, prepared for consumers who are pressed for time or simply cannot be bothered to venture into the kitchen, but still desire options for a cooked meal. In order to ensure that consumers are not harmed by eating such foods, there are recommended and required best practices that vendors should adhere to, in making this product available to members of the public.

Are there any current or applicable regulations?
The Public Health Act stipulates the requirements as to proper practices for persons/establishments transporting, handling, preparing and processing food and speaks specifically, among other things, to requirements for storage periods for foods cooked and served to consumers. As such, although not an explicit requirement of the Standards Act, vendors should, as a layer of protection for themselves and for Consumers, provide date and time information as a guide.

What information should be included on the label?
This information could be in relation to either when the item was removed from the oven and or the recommended lag time between cooking and consumption. This is particularly important for Chicken, which is prepared, and neither served immediately nor is stored in a hot holding cabinet or other suitable device. Consumers should also ensure that their Rotisserie Chicken is hot at the time of purchase

Is it safe for Vendors to sell Rotisserie Chicken without proper Date and Time of Preparation information on the labelling?
As long as the meal being offered for sale is fresh (not spoilt), properly handled and prepared and held hot (at or above 140oF), then it should be fit for human consumption. The time that elapses between when the chicken is prepared and taken out of the oven then placed on the shelf, to the time when it is purchased and finally eaten should be as short as possible. Consumers should ask the attendant details about how long the prepared product has been out of the oven and use this information to determine whether or not they will make the purchase.

CAC Advice:
Supermarkets that provide Rotisserie Chicken could be further guided by what obtains in the United States and other developed countries, whereby vendors are sometimes required to indicate on the product’s package the time at which the Chicken was removed from the oven and served. Also, those guidelines provide an extra layer of protection for consumers as it informs them that if the interval between when it is first offered, to when it would actually be purchased passes three (3) hours, then they should reconsider making that purchase.
Above all, consumers should recognize their power as a part of the driving force in ensuring the safety of the food they eat. As with many other consumer protection laws, you can be a catalyst in ensuring adherence on the part of vendors by first familiarising yourself with these laws and by encouraging those establishments which serve you, to recognize and operate accordingly.
In situations where legislation and regulations are not currently available then the consumer and the market place may propose guidelines that vendors ultimately will have to follow to ensure patronage of their businesses.

Tell us what issues you want addressed

Send e-mail to: cacjam@infochan.com

Write to us at: 1B Holborn Road, Kingston 10 Or call us at: 926-1650-2 or toll free 1-888-991-4470, ask for our Information Desk