The nutritional advantages of chicken are highlighted in the latest food inflation brief from the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP).
Comparing the nutritional value for money of polony and chicken, the BFAP looked at both cost and nutritional content.
It said that in February this year, the cost of a single serving of individually quick frozen (IQF) chicken was R8.22, about 63% higher than the R4.96 cost of a serving of polony. This suggested a value-for-money advantage for polony over IQF chicken.
“However, when considering a nutritional value-for-money with a specific focus on protein content, a different picture emerges.”
The chicken portion contained 25g of protein per serving – 150% more than the 10g of protein per serving for polony.
“To obtain 25g of protein from polony, a consumer will have to spend about R12.39, thus about 51% more than the cost of a chicken single serving,” the article stated.
“While polony initially appears to be the more economical choice, this advantage is superficial when adjusted for nutritional quality. When the metric shifts to ‘protein-per-Rand’, IQF chicken emerges as the superior value-for-money option.
“Ready to eat meats like polony meet consumer demands for cost and convenience; however a true value-for-money assessment must weigh these factors against nutritional density and quality, specifically protein and essential macro- and micronutrients,” the BFAP said.
It also noted that sharp rises in the prices of beef and pork had far outstripped the contribution of chicken to meat price increases in February. Most of February’s food inflation was due to higher meat prices, more than half of that coming from beef and pork, while chicken contributed around 16% to the overall meat price increase.
South Africa’s food inflation dropped to 3.7% in February, from 4.4% in January. It remained above South Africa’s headline inflation rate of 3%, which was down from 3.5% in January.
