Sector Outlooks
More Chicken Wings, Anyone?
New meat cutting processes promise a 50% increase in wing parts per bird.
By Neema P. Roshania, Intern, The Kiplinger Letters
April 23, 2010
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Mmm … chicken wings, fried and dipped in hot sauce. The tasty morsels are so popular with wing lovers that chicken producers have difficulty keeping up with demand. After all, chickens have only two wings each -- with two edible parts per wing.
So-called boneless wings -- small bits of breast meat fried and served with sauce à la wings -- are acceptable substitutes for some folks, but true wing aficionados say they’re no replacement for the real thing.
Now comes perhaps a more promising solution to the wing shortage -- meat cuts that include the two scapula bones and their surrounding meat and skin. A protruding bone joint makes each piece easy to pick up. Add the two scapula parts to the four wing parts and presto -- a 50% increase in edible “wing” parts per bird.
Third Wing LLC, a Dacula, Ga.-based firm, manages the licensing of a patent covering the scapula cut. The company’s Web site notes that its product features whole white meat and less bone, gristle and cartilage.
Meanwhile, a robotics process that aims to automate the process of producing more pieces per bird is in the works at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Gary McMurray, project director, says, “We are verifying the core technology. Next year, we are going to develop a stage 1 functional prototype that will be able to run a couple of hundred birds easily.”
Will the scapula meat win over wing lovers? Jeff Brown, aka Lord of the Wings, is taking a wait and see … er, taste … attitude. But clearly, he’s intrigued: “What do these new wings look like? Do they have the same meat-to-skin ratio? Is the flavor the same? If it is similar to the traditional wingette/drummette, then this could be great for everyone. Otherwise, it might lead to the ‘watering down’ of an order of chicken wings.
“It sounds exciting, though,” says his lordship, who reviews and blogs about chicken wings from his base in Ottawa, Canada.
A large new supply of “wing” parts promises to be good for chicken producers, too. Wholesale wing prices are up nearly 40% since 2008, pushing up retail prices as well, but wing lovers aren’t about to go cold turkey, so to speak.
Brown notes that while Canada isn’t experiencing the shortage felt in the U.S. -- at least not yet -- “the cost of chicken wings has definitely been on the rise. What was served more as a cheap appetizer is frequently priced as a full priced entrée,” he says.
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Reader Comments (8)
Posted by: Eat Healthier at 04/29/2010 06:17:30 PM
I see there are no comments to this article. And that is because, well, it is insane. The rest of the world is talking about how to get healthier and reduce meat consumption - you have major films like Food, Inc, books like Eating Animals by J. Safran Foer... or The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan... the new film coming out called Forks Over Knives.... everyone is dialoguing and talking about the way animals suffer, how meat eating has increased to an unhealthy amount (150 times what our diet was even 100 years ago)... the links between human health, environmental health and problems with factory farming - all point so overwhelmingly towards the need for dietary change and some sort of greater consciousness about what we eat - - and you are fantasizing and posting about how to make more fried chicken wings. There is nothing positive about this. As someone who has seen the birds that get rescued from the factory farms that produce these kinds of "mass meats", you could not pay me a million dollars to eat one those poor, sick birds. Putting barbecue sauce on organic veggies is the better choice.
Posted by: fool at 04/30/2010 09:42:21 AM
chicken is edible, just eat it!
Posted by: Val at 04/30/2010 11:37:20 AM
Oh look a Oh it's unhealthy to eat meat Whiner? Leave us meat eaters alone.
Posted by: Slap a vegan at 04/30/2010 11:42:53 AM
Oh let's complain because they've being more efficient, and maybe won't have to kill as many birds. It's wrong to eat meat, they suffer. Yeah, Well I like to slap my veggies around before I grill them RIGHT NEXT TO MY RIBS and Fajitas. It's called Moderation, don't come on with some. .oh eating meat is bad for you, everyone over eats meat. Some of us know what moderation is. Now it'll be nice to be able to eat the same amount, but know that less chickens were killed. Though I could care less, i just believe in being efficient, if we're going to kill an animal, we could at least use it all. *smack* Speaking of which, I think I need a nice steak tonight. Hmmm
Posted by: Sasso at 05/03/2010 05:23:53 PM
I have a blog that rates chicken wings and I love them but I think this article is weird.. Chicken Wings were once considered scraps but something about this strikes me as odd... www.shandeh.com
Posted by: PH at 05/09/2010 08:18:42 AM
Ok VAL and other people that choose meat, I promise to leave you alone after you see the inside of these slaughter houses. After you witness some of the millions of animals that are totally awake and feeling (conscience) while they are being cut in half. The compassion that is so lacking in this country, has led to a near finacial meltdown, now a seemingly unending oil supply into The Guf of Mexico and soon well beyond that. I used to eat meat 6 years ago and I was a hunter as a child. However, once I realized what was going on I stopped hunting first, 30 something years ago and slowly stopped eating flesh from cows, pigs, chickens, all land animals flesh. Then I stopped eating fish, and lastly stopped consuming dairy products, milk, eggs, veal, all of it. Most of you think we are Omnivores and carnivores, yet the biological FACT is we have the digestive system of herbivores. . Please look it up and you will see that fact. Opinions are out there by the millions, and depending on what it is you want, being the side you take. If you don't care about the animals, then do you care about yourself? Meat is the worst thing for us, we can get protein in many ways, that doesn't require killig any animal or ingesting animal fat, loaded with extra cholesterol, which our bodies make enough of, and some of us too much, without ever eating a mouthful of what the animal needed. To name a few - lentils, soy, and rice. Why we seem to have such apathy and outright anger for animals ( we must hate them for what we do to them), is beyond my comprehension, for all the good they do for us and all the BAD we do to them. I expect many thoughtless comments, but I hope for the BEST.
Posted by: Bob at 05/11/2010 07:33:42 PM
There was a story 40 years ago about the genetic development of a six legged chicken so that everyone could have more drumsticks. When the developer was asked if they tasted like regular chicken, he said he didn't know. They hadn't been able to catch one to find out.
Posted by: Nomen at 05/11/2010 08:35:30 PM
While we should be eating less meat and I certainly don't like factory farms, added growth hormones or antibiotics, I find several people's comments interesting. Most of the wild animals living free in nature struggle to find enough food and their short lives usually end by starvation or being pursued and eaten alive. This time of year baby animals provide the bulk of the predators' diets. But most people no longer live out in the wild and have lost all appreciation for the daily life and death struggles that go on there. Nature is beautiful but horrifically cruel. Even my wife likes to pretend that chickens are born in the back of the meat department already cleaned and wrapped in plastic. I occasionally have to remind her that for most of the history of mankind we have eaten whatever was available. Before refrigeration and modern food preservation, fresh meat (which we killed) was a staple of our diets. Being a strict vegetarian then would have been difficult if not impossible.