Shoppers Slam Costco Over ‘Funky Chicken’—Here's Why
While members might be over the moon about Costco's latest product release (garlic parmesan butter rolls), they have a bone to pick with the retailer over one of its grocery staples.
On Wednesday, customers flooded Reddit with disgust over Costco's "funky chicken."
"We picked up this chicken from Costco last weekend and when we went to prep it, it began to pull apart with very little effort and looked like this," the original poster wrote in the thread. "Although they state there's no added hormones or antibiotics. This shows clear signs of fast growth/excessive growth in the breasts... am I wrong here?"
Fellow shoppers were quick to agree. "A well cooked chicken breast used to slice now it shreds. It's awful," one user wrote. "It's clearly too much growth. It gets a fiberous texture when you cook it," someone chimed in. "There may not be hormones involved, but it could just be the chickens were allowed to get too big/old."
"I stopped buying Costco chicken a while back. It is just very poor quality," another said. "Their chicken sucks," a fourth Reddit user commented.
One Costco member suggested that they "write to the CEO" about the chicken issue. "He seems to respond," they said. "Someone already did and got a reply that he would look into it," a person responded. "That was many months ago."
Others agreed that the issue was going unresolved. "They’re well aware. Pretty much every major gripe in this sub is very old news. Shitty produce, blade tenderized beef is a horrible thing, batteries all leak eventually, etc, etc. Chicken breasts have been an issue for years now, and it’s a problem elsewhere too," one customer added.
Despite the fact that the anger is largely directed at Costco in the thread, it seems to be more of a universal problem—meaning it's not just an issue at the one retailer. "The chicken industry as a whole has a woody chicken breast problem," a shopper said. "I’ve seen this at Frys/Safeway/Walmart also" another chimed in.
"Apparently a lot of the higher quality supply goes to chicken restaurants like Chick Fil A, Popeyes etc." Takeout tonight, anyone?
Turns out, there's a term for this weird chicken defect (beyond just "funky chicken"). It's called spaghetti chicken and it refers to a muscle defect known as myopathy. The good news is that it's safe to eat—even if it might look a little less appealing. Your best bet for avoiding it is to buy from small-scale suppliers (that grow their chickens at a slower rate) or chicken with USDA organic designation.
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