Subway Canada Denies Claims That Its Chicken Is Only 50% Actual Meat

A few hours ago, news broke that according to study, Subway’s chicken contains only 50% chicken. Expectedly, Subway has vehemently denied these findings, affirming that its chicken is – well, all chicken.

The Background

Researchers with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recently ran DNA tests on chicken from a collection of fast food chains in Canada including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Tim Horton’s and Subway. It stated that the tests found that McDonald’s Country Chicken-Grilled was only 84.9% chicken, Wendy’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich was 88.5% chicken and Tim Horton’s Chipotle Chicken Grilled Wrap was 96.5% chicken.

However, the most focused on finding is that the chicken in Subway’s Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich was only 53.6% while the chicken in the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki was only 42.8%.

According to the report, the rest of the ‘chicken’ was made up of soy.

The Fast Food Chains Fight Back

As you would imagine, the fast food chains in the study were quick to defend their honour. A statement from McDonald’s following the report said “Our grilled chicken sandwich is made with 100% seasoned chicken breast…We don’t release the percentage of each ingredient for competitive reasons, but on the nutrition centre people can see that our grilled chicken includes seasoning and other ingredients, just like at home.”

Meanwhile, a statement from Subway said  “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.”

It stressed its point in a mail to Consumer Affairs when Subway spokesman Kevin Kane wrote “The accusations made by CBC Marketplace about the content of our chicken are absolutely false and misleading. Our chicken is 100% white meat with seasonings, marinated and delivered to our stores as a finished, cooked product…This report is wrong and it must be corrected.”