"Hormone chicken" is usually a misunderstood concept in the food industry, because hormones are not added to chicken sold in the mainstream market for breeding. The use of growth hormones to enhance chicken growth is banned in the United States, Canada, the European Union and many other countries.
In fact, the terms "hormone chicken" and "hormone-free chicken" themselves can cause confusion. Usually, a more accurate way to differentiate is:
This statement usually means that no hormones are added during the feeding process. In the U.S., farmers use "hormone-free" labels to inform consumers because U.S. law requires it, but they need to state "Federal law prohibits the use of growth hormones in chicken." So, this statement is more of a marketing use to emphasize the naturalness of chicken.
Although the term "hormone chicken" is used, in fact the use of hormones in feed to promote chicken growth is prohibited in most economies. As mentioned before, countries such as the United States have banned the use of hormones in feed to promote chicken growth.
So, in reality, there is no difference in hormone use between the two types of chicken. Most commercially available chicken is hormone-free, and the term hormone chicken is often used in wrong or misleading contexts.
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