A Texas mother’s disturbing experience with what experts refer to as “spaghetti meat” chicken caused widespread horror on the internet. Many people are now doubting the quality of poultry offered in stores as a result of the widely shared post on X (previously Twitter).

While washing chicken breasts she had bought from Aldi for her kids’ supper, Alesia Cooper noticed something odd. In her hands, the meat started to crumble and become mushy and stringy. Cooper remarked, “I think it’s fake meat,” in a post that went viral right away.

Experts were eager to explain the occurrence, though. Cooper came across spaghetti meat, a disease that occasionally affects birds raised for commercial purposes, rather than “fake meat.”

Spaghetti meat is caused by modern breeding techniques designed to make chickens grow larger and faster. This rapid growth, particularly in breast muscles, can outpace the bird’s circulatory system, depriving muscle tissues of oxygen. As a result, the muscle fibers separate, creating a stringy texture reminiscent of spaghetti.

According to the National Chicken Council, chickens are growing almost twice as quickly now as they were fifty years ago. It took more than 100 days for chickens to weigh only 2.5 pounds in 1925. In just 47 days, chickens weighed 6.56 pounds by 2022. Although this efficiency boosts the amount of meat produced, it also leads to problems with quality, such as spaghetti meat and a related ailment called “woody breast,” in which the meat gets rough and leathery.

Spaghetti meat may be chewier than usual, but scientists tell consumers that it is still safe to eat despite the unattractive texture.

Strong reactions were generated by Cooper’s post and the gory images of the stringy meat. “I hesitated to share this, but if I had to see it, so do you,” she stated.  The images sparked a mix of horror and curiosity among viewers, many of whom were unaware of the phenomenon.

Wendy’s and Whole Foods are two grocery stores and fast-food franchises that are addressing customer concerns. They claim that slower-grown chickens have superior texture and flavor, therefore they have started sourcing them.

Fast-growing hens are more likely to have these anomalies, according to Dr. Massimiliano Petracci, a professor of agriculture and food science at the University of Bologna. In 2015, spaghetti meat was initially identified by researchers, and by 2019, it has been found in 4-5% of chicken breast samples.

The discovery of spaghetti meat exposes the unintended implications of contemporary farming methods, which is why some consumers are calling for higher standards in the production of poultry.