Chicken in Fast Food

I love to eat fast food on my weekends. I like having Pizza and sugary drinks. I know that I need to change my diet, but the findings in this article has done exactly that. I love eating other fast foods, especially Subway, however, I have discovered some disgusting facts about it. I have been watching the CBC marketplace, where they go undercover and test certain products or companies that may be hiding some dark secrets. So, today's episode of CBC Marketplace I watched how much chicken is in the chicken sandwich fast food meals? I always get the chicken option when ordering, I think it tastes better than beef. My dad always makes the best beef hamburgers and anything else does not taste good to me or compares to his homemade hamburgers.

CBC went to A&W, Wendy's, McDonald's, Tim Hortons, and Subway to test the chicken that you are eating. They hired a chef to make homemade chicken to see if the taste testers could taste the real chicken. Here is what I learned: The taste testers could identify the real chicken, which is already disconcerting for me- the chicken burger lover. After sending it to the lab and getting the results I learned that MOST of the samples was mostly chicken except for two of the samples. Subway's "Oven-roasted chicken" lab results showed that it was less than 50% chicken. I am not shocked, but disgusted, the fact that Subway's slogan is "Eat Fresh" and they do not live up to it is appalling for me as a consumer of Subway. The second chicken sample that had just a little over 50% chicken was also from Subway known as "Chicken Strips". In other words, Subway's chicken is not what you think it is. Let that settle in your stomach for a bit.

So, CBC took it to the next level and decided to question the fast-food chain about their product. However, Subway was at first unresponsive and then claimed that they were "checking with their suppliers".

The CBC crew took their cameras to a food lab and asked a scientist at the University of Guelph to look into what Subway could be substituting for their chicken. He suggested that it could be reformed meat, meaning different meats mixed into one to create what subway calls "chicken". However, there are also non-meat ingredients in their chicken, and here is where it gets nasty... it had different types of starches such as corn starch, vegetable starch, there was evidence of seasonings, oils, soy protein (who knows what that is), brown sugar (sugar in chicken? if that does not raise your eyebrows, what does?), yeast extract, among other ingredients. The main ingredient that makes it sellable to consumers is sodium phosphate, which makes it possible for food chains to freeze the chicken and to serve it. The tests showed that all of the fast-food places use it in their meat, except for Wendy's. So, when it comes down to it, do not order a chicken bacon ranch sandwich. The grilled marks that you see on the chicken is actually added later, to add to the visual effect. They cook the chicken and whatever else ingredients, then they add the grill marks... does that sound okay to you? Anybody feel like having Subway tonight? Nah, me neither.

Who knows what other meats are not real? I have always liked Wendy's and I will only order chicken sandwiches from them as it is the only fast-food chain that does not use sodium phosphate, which must mean it is fresher than any other fast-food chain that they did the sample test on. Don't believe me? See for yourself...