PETERBOROUGH, ON (WCMH) — Testing of fast food chicken sandwiches recently revealed that the chicken you order may not be all chicken.
CBC News reported that a team from Trent University’s Wildlife Forensic DNA laboratory did DNA testing at several popular fast food restaurants.
A piece of chicken purchased from a store would be expected to register as 100% chicken DNA. Adding marinades, seasoning and other processing will bring that number down, CBC reported.
The results of tests of chicken at A&W, McDonald’s, Tim Hortons and Wendy’s revealed chicken DNA percentages between 85 and 90 percent.
Tests done on chicken from Subway were surprising. Subway’s oven roasted chicken scored 53.6% chicken DNA. Subway chicken strips were found to have 42.8 percent chicken DNA.
The majority of the remaining DNA was soy protein, CBC reported.
Subway released a statement to CBC disputing the results of the testing:
SUBWAY Canada cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted. However, we are concerned by the alleged findings you cite with respect to the proportion of soy content. Our chicken strips and oven roasted chicken contain 1% or less of soy protein. We use this ingredient in these products as a means to help stabilize the texture and moisture. All of our chicken items are made from 100% white meat chicken which is marinated, oven roasted and grilled. We tested our chicken products recently for nutritional and quality attributes and found it met our food quality standards. We will look into this again with our supplier to ensure that the chicken is meeting the high standard we set for all of our menu items and ingredients.
