The law as it stands, is very clear on the processes revealed by Panorama.

At the moment, it is not illegal to inject water into chickens or any other kind of meat under British or European law.

The only stipulation is that you must declare how much water has been added to the product on the labelling.

This means in theory that you can pump a chicken so that it contains 70% water, and as long as you state that it is 70% water on the packaging, it is perfectly legal.

Mislead

It is also not against the law to add proteins into the chickens to enable them to hold more water.

These must also be labelled - but as long as the label confirms that there are "hydrolised proteins" in the product - companies can legally put pork, beef or any animal protein into chickens.

It would be an offence to mislead consumers by getting the information on the labels wrong.

However, the law could be about to change. The Food Standards Agency is keen to force processors to declare more fully on the label what it is they are adding to the product.

The European Commission is about to publish proposals aimed at tightening the labelling laws on these products.

It is thought that these proposals may include forcing processors to display the use of added water in the product more prominently on the packaging.

It could even include legislation on the labelling of "hydrolised proteins" - forcing processors to declare the species from which the protein was derived.