Chicken Marketing

Yellow Skin or White Skin?
Chickens are marketed with either yellow or white skin depending on the market. California is generally a yellow skin market, but it is becoming more mixed. Yellow-skinned chickens generally command a premium over white-skinned chickens. In California, yellow skin is associated with higher quality. In a general sense, this is true.

Yellow skin comes from lower processing temperatures and from the chicken's diet. Corn produces yellow skin. Some Out-of-State chicken producers feed chickens marigold seeds to create yellow skin. Chickens that are washed in higher temperatures are more easily defeathered by machine. In order to retain yellow skin, lower temperatures and more labor is required. Lower temperatures help retard bacterial growth and let the chicken's skin retain its natural protection against germ inoculation. This helps shelf life.

There are certain advantages to white skin, however. White skin will hold batter better, get crispier faster and has less calories than yellow skin.

Marketing Terminology
Marketing terms such as natural, minimally processed and range are good selling tools, but are virtually meaningless in terms of product quality. No commercially available chicken (with the possible exception of Empire Kosher) is a true free range chicken. All chickens, except for marinated chickens, are minimally processed. Free range can mean a chicken was outside for just minutes. And, natural simply means not artificial.

The nostalgia marketing has combined with health marketing to sell organic and free range chickens. These chickens normally taste better than regular fryers because they are usually fully grown. The breeding industry has been able to add weight so quickly to chickens that we are eating very young chickens with tender meat. If they are grown to maturity the meat becomes firmer and fatter.