Executive Summary

Standard factory-farmed chickens are bred to grow at an extreme pace, and live in cramped, often dirty conditions. WHITE STRIPING IS A MUSCLE DISEASE THAT IS REPORTED TO IMPACT 50 - 96% OF FAST-GROWING CHICKENS, AND IS A CONSEQUENCE OF FAST GROWTH RATES. Scientists are still studying the causes of this muscle disease in chickens, but one thing is clear: White stripes show up because the chicken's body can't keep up with the unnaturally fast muscle growth. These chickens have so much muscle that they have trouble getting blood to all of it. Their muscles become inflamed and die from lack of oxygen. Their bodies replace this muscle tissue with fibrous tissue and fat. This changes the appearance and texture and, crucially, reduces the nutritional value of the meat by increasing the fat content.

The Humane League, a global animal protection nonprofit, set out to investigate whether the chicken fillets on supermarket shelves had similar levels of white striping disease to those reported in scientific journals.

OUR FINDINGS REVEALED:

• 99% OF PACKETS EXAMINED HAD ONE BREAST FILLET OR MORE AFFECTED BY WHITE STRIPING. In fact, some supermarkets had white striping in 100% of the packets sampled.
• ALL SIXTEEN SUPERMARKETS HAD WHITE STRIPING DISEASE PRESENT in their standard own-brand chicken breast fillets.
• THE WORST OFFENDERS WERE WALMART, BJ'S, AND MEIJER, with moderate to severe white striping present in 93%, 87%, and 85% respectively.

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