Chinese Chicken Feet Fight
In a nutshell: Because of food safety concerns, the U.S. is worried about Chinese chicken imports and may extend a ban on the importation of Chinese chicken products - specifically, chicken feet.
In retaliation, China has stopped issuing import permits for American chicken. And that means America has an oversupply of chicken feet. Yes, chicken feet. More than half of our Chinese chicken exports are in the form of chicken feet. The creative cooks of China apparently transform these feet into tasty soups, stews, and snack items.
U.S. chicken feet are being booted out of China
China is a huge market for U.S. chicken feet, commonly called paws, and bought 421,000 tonnes, or $280 million worth, in 2008, according to the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, a trade group.
In China, paws are popular in soups, stews, and as snack items, but very few are sold in the United States.
In April, China launched a dispute with the World Trade Organization against the United States over the Congressional measure.
So the U.S. continues to have problems with China, only this time its over chicken feet. Makes a person wonder if our foods here in the U.S. are using chicken feet so out of curiosity I did a quick search. Apparently this is not a new concept; in fact, there are recipes to be found just for the use of chicken feet, from soup stock to fried snacks.
I also found a list of “uses for chicken feet” – which sound more sensible, don’t you think?
