LETTER

Gross chicken?

 

For those of you freaking out over the news that DNA tests revealed that a fast-food outlet’s chicken is actually half soy (which the chain is denying), relax. If you’ve unwittingly been eating soy, you’re lucky.

Chicken is gross. Tests by Consumer Reports revealed that 97 per cent of supermarket birds are contaminated with salmonella, campylobacter, staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, and other disease-causing bacteria. And that bacteria is increasingly antibiotic-resistant, thanks in part to the common industry practice of feeding chickens low doses of antibiotics as growth promoters. CR also found that more than half of the chicken samples tested were contaminated with feces: The chilled water that chicken carcasses are dumped into during butchering has been called “fecal soup” because so much feces from chickens’ bodies accumulates in it.

Soy is sounding pretty, isn’t it? In addition to containing beneficial isoflavones that can help prevent heart disease and cancer, soy is cholesterol-free and low in saturated fat and calories. Go ahead, try it—you’ll wonder why you
didn’t switch sooner.

Alisa Mullins, PETA Foundation