A mother was completely taken aback when the chicken she was preparing for dinner separated into stringy pieces resembling spaghetti.
Explaining that pasta was not on the menu that night, the mom shared a Facebook post that shows the raw chicken she was washing, coming apart in her hands.
“I think it’s that fake meat,” she writes on her now-viral post, which is inspiring online users to consider going vegan.
Keep reading to learn more about the stringy chicken!
Alesia Cooper from Irving, Texas, shared a disturbing photo of a chicken breast that seemed to resist its fate on a dinner plate on March 21.
Cooper writes: “I had been debating on posting this, but since I had to see it, so should y’all.” The post, which also includes an image of the chicken shredding into spaghetti-like strands, continues: “I was cooking my kids dinner a couple of weeks ago, and as I was cleaning the meat like I normally do, it turned into this!”
The mother of two, who mentions she bought the chicken breast from the budget supermarket Aldi, adds: “I think it’s that fake meat but I’m not sure. Either way, I haven’t made chicken off the bone since.”
Netizens quickly jumped into the comments section, offering their opinions on the matter, with some suggesting the chicken was 3D-printed or grown in a lab.
“That’s lab-grown chicken. It’s a new method they’ve adopted because of recent bird flu and resource shortages,” one commenter argues.
“GMO lab meat,” writes another.
A third person decides it’s “fake; I don’t buy it anymore.”
However, another user offers a more logical explanation: “It’s not lab-grown or 3D-printed meat. It comes from real chickens. The issue arises when chicken producers use growth hormones to make them grow too quickly.”
Bigger Breasts
According to The Wall Street Journal, along with hard, chewy meat called “woody breast,” “spaghetti meat” is allegedly a result of breeding chickens to have larger breasts and grow at a faster rate.
This results in more meat per bird and higher profit margins for producers.
“There is proof that these abnormalities are associated with fast-growing birds,” says Dr. Massimiliano Petracci, a professor of agriculture and food science at the University of Bologna in Italy, to the WSJ.
While the terms “woody breast” and “spaghetti meat” might sound unsettling, industry experts assure that consuming these meats is not harmful.
But it is hard on the chickens, whose oversized bodies strain their little legs.
Chubby Chickens
According to the National Chicken Council, broiler chickens—those raised for meat—grow significantly faster now than in the past. In 2000, the average chicken went to market at 47 days old, weighing 5.03 pounds. By 2023, the average chicken still reaches market age at 47 days but now weighs 6.54 pounds.
Comparing these numbers to nearly a century ago, broilers took 112 days to gain a market weight of 2.5 pounds in 1925.
This transformation reflects the increasing demand for white meat over the past century, leading the industry to breed chickens with disproportionately larger breasts.
Dr. Michael Lilburn, a professor at Ohio State University’s Poultry Research Center, tells the Washington Post: “If people keep eating more chicken, chickens will have to get even bigger…We’ll have to increase the proportion of breast meat in each bird, too.”
“What people don’t realize is that it’s consumer demand driving these changes,” Lilburn said. “The bulk of the population doesn’t care where their food comes from, as long as it’s cheap.”
Fast food chains and some grocery stores have partly supported the demand for larger breast meat. However, The New York Times reports that some companies are now pushing for meat from slower-growing chickens, advocating that this method provides the birds with a healthier life and results in better-tasting meat.
‘I’ll go vegan’
Meanwhile, online users are expressing their disgust over the noodled chicken.
One user asks: “It looks like worms! What are they feeding us?”
“I got some like that a while ago,” shares a second user. “Things haven’t looked right since we were younger. A lot fresher.”
Others suggested shopping elsewhere: “You’ll get better quality chicken from a local butcher or co-op. I recommend going there instead for your meat.”
Some were inspired to become vegetarian.
“I’ll go vegan. Too much lab food around,” writes one commenter, while another adds: “This is why we are thinking about going pescatarian.”
It’s unfortunate that factory farming causes these poor creatures so much suffering in their short lives.
