Chicken Livers - What's wrong?

[schmije]

A friend of mine bought two whole chickens from the grocery store. One had the liver at the top of the picture, and the other had the liver at the bottom. What could have caused the liver at the bottom to look so awful? She said it was squishy, not hard like normal. She was afraid to use it and threw it away.

 

[Beekissed]

Nope to both options. That is a diseased liver...either it has been affected/inflamed by the bird's diet or high metabolic rate...or both....but it is not from being in the water nor from a bile duct accident.

I just processed 20 meaties and only kept 2 of the livers, as the others showed such discoloration and a macerated texture~not nearly as bad as this one though. I've also seen this in some older birds. I've been processing birds for a long time and always examine livers closely before using them. The lower one in this picture should never have been offered for sale or consumption.

 

[megcpat]

That's my brilliant comment for the evening. Good luck finding an answer - very curious indeed.

 

[HennyJenny]

If I had to take a guess they cut the bile duct when it was being processed. (Ask me how I learned about that -

) If that's the case then good she threw it away and probably the rest of the chicken too.

 

[can you hear me now?]

Well I would say I am at least 75% sure the one that looks bad has been in water for a period of time. I am an avid fisherman and when we used to fish for channel cat we used chicken liver among other things. Between maybe water and probably temperature I would say.

 

[schmije]

She used the chicken and said it was good. Can you assume that the liver that's sold in the chicken is the liver that came out of the chicken?

 

[can you hear me now?]

I would assume so. I always figured the water did the livers in. Could be the warm temperature. When buying any refridgerated meat you can only trust so much in big business processed food. This is one of the reasons ground beef can be so dangerous. It honestly could have been frozen or refridgerated and then thawn or been in warmer temperatures above 40 degrees. At that temperature up to 140 bacteria thrive and thrive fast. I was licensed in food safety in the State of Indiana and Illinois. I am not a know it all but what I think it is is just that it has been in the warm temp too long and meat holds better than liver does. Don't know but now I DO know to look if i buy full chicken to make sure the insides look well before I personally eat them. Hope I helped. Looks to me the person above my first post knows something about what it could be as well. He may be right and I may be wrong because I am only taking my educated guess.

 

[HennyJenny]

can you hear me now? :

Looks to me the person above my first post knows something about what it could be as well. He may be right and I may be wrong because I am only taking my educated guess.

I am a gigantic guesser not an educated one

I destroyed a bile duct this weekend processing a bird and judging by what it smelled like - I am guessing it could make a liver look like that but it would have ruined the chicken too. And your educated guess reminded me of what chicken livers left too long in the fishing cooler look like

 

[uhuh555]

Looks to me the liver had been damages wile being processed and when soaked in the “special broth” to “enhance” it, it began to break down into the sloppy mess you see.

Bile would have given it a green tinge. The reason they remove the bile gland is because it is very bitter in taste and will act as a laxative when eaten. Most large animal processing plants save the bile ducts and they are sold to pharmaceutical companies to make natural laxatives with.

 

[bluep]

i worked 10years in a turkey processing plant.if a turkey had liver like that the government vet would take the bird of the line and bin it unfit for human consumption