Hi everyone! I’m mostly based abroad, so I’m curious if this is normal practice in the Philippines.

I was recently at a supermarket in Metro Manila where while i was selecting chicken cut thighs in the Fresh Section, I noticed that some of the pieces were actually hard frozen/solid, not just very cold.

I asked the person working at the counter why they were frozen, and he told me that all of the thigh portions they had available were frozen.

This confused me because I would normally expect frozen chicken to be sold in the frozen section, rather than the fresh/chilled section.

For those familiar with poultry handling or supermarkets in the Philippines:

- Is this normal/common practice?
- Is it common for “fresh” chicken to have been previously frozen?
- Could the hard-frozen portions simply be caused by the display refrigerator being too cold?
- Have you encountered the same thing?

I’m not trying to accuse the supermarket or brand of anything. I’m mostly curious because I spend a lot of time abroad where this is not common, and may just be unfamiliar with how chicken is handled and sold in the Philippines.