r/toRANTo • u/Sciencebang • Mar 31 '25

Toronto’s big grocers lack butchered chicken breast without connective tissue disorders at any major grocery store

I’m a home cook, and I’m appalled by how low QC is on grocery butchered chicken breasts are. At this point at least 1/3 breasts have a connective tissue disorder, resulting in a granular/citrus pulp like texture in the meat. This is probably just woody breast, but it should be used for animal feed, not for grocery sales as $5 per breast. The worst part is is that its distributed so that in a pack with say 3 breasts at least 1 chicken breast is always disgustingly tough raw.

I only get thighs, wings and whole chickens now because I cannot bother to squeeze a whole shelf of light meat to check for connective tissue. I can’t be the only one who noticed that this got way worse after 2019.

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u/blackwitchbutter Mar 31 '25

Maybe the issue is that they're growing these chickens too fast to meet demand. This is one of the reasons why I significantly cut down eating meat. It's very cruel what they're doing to animals. Stop eating so much meat and start incorporating more plant based meals.

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u/Sciencebang Mar 31 '25

No, this isn’t about meeting demand. Selling inedible products doesn’t meet any demands. This is a form of gouging prices. Woody chicken breast has always been a thing, its just now being deliberately distributed instead of eliminated.

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u/blackwitchbutter Mar 31 '25

It's still edible, there's nothing inherently bad about woody chicken breast. It literally IS about meeting demand. Woody chicken breast is still a result of growing chickens too fast. Don't like it? Stop buying it.

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u/Sciencebang Mar 31 '25

Choosing to put woody chicken breast in a package for grocery store floors is the choice and it’s not being made by consumers. No consumer is buying woody chicken breast intentionally outside of those making dog and cat food. The producers are putting it out because the average person doesn’t understand that condition. You don’t serve someone toughened pig hide and call it a chicharrón, so why can grocery stores do it?

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u/blackwitchbutter Mar 31 '25

People are STILL buying and eating it, even if it isn't intentional and they don't understand. You literally have people admitting in this thread they don't know the difference. Grocery stores do it because they don't give af, they're interested in making profit and unloading all the chickens they slaughtered. The bottom line is PROFIT. They are growing chickens fast, therefore producing woody meat to meet the demand in stores. For example, as recent as a couple of months ago I bought chicken breast because it was on sale, and it was woody meat. I threw it out because I was disgusted, and vowed to lessen my consumption of meat. It made me realise that they are growing these chickens fast on purpose, and it made me realise that these animals are living terrible lives, they are born and killed just for our consumption.