Alesia Cooper, a mother from Irving, Texas, shared a disturbing picture of a chicken breast on March 21. She expressed her shock, stating, “I been debating on posting this but since I had to see it so do yall.” The chicken breast appeared shredded into strands, which occurred while she was cooking dinner for her kids a couple of weeks earlier.

Cooper mentioned that she purchased the chicken breast from Aldi, a budget supermarket, and speculated that it might be “fake meat.” She admitted she hadn’t cooked chicken off the bone since encountering this issue.

The picture generated various comments, ranging from criticism to conspiracy theories. Some suggested it was lab-grown chicken or fake meat, while others blamed the problem on growth hormones given to chickens by greedy breeders.

According to reports, the condition known as “woody breast” or “spaghetti meat” is caused by breeders using growth hormones to make chicken breasts larger. Dr. Massimiliano Petracci, an agriculture and food science professor at the University of Bologna, confirmed that such abnormalities are linked to fast-growing birds.

The demand for chicken products like nuggets and sandwiches is driving the industry to produce larger birds with more breast meat. Dr. Michael Lilburn, a professor at Ohio State University’s Poultry Research Center, emphasized that consumer demand is pushing the industry to adapt, even though a majority of consumers are not concerned about where their food comes from as long as it’s cheap.