UPDATE (12/26/2019): We have reached out to Whitsons Corporate with this statement.
(Mount Vernon, N.Y. / The Journal) — The countdown to the holidays is now down to the wire. Our school community has just kicked off two whole weeks of winter break. However, public opinion on the trustworthiness of school lunches is mixed. Everyone can simply agree that it's either terrible or needs work. From Wednesday's rib sandwiches this week, the rib patty looked like it was molded from a Play-Doh machine and the grill marks looked fake. With a new school lunch company, Whitsons Culinary Group, that just took over operations in September, why is student reaction so negative? Can they back up their claims about our observations?
Well, we did some research and found a 2017 episode from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's consumer-advocacy show "Marketplace". In the report from the CBC's Charlsie Agro, they tested grilled chicken from Canada's leading fast-food chains. (To see the full episode, click here.) In the clip below, food scientist Ben Bohrer of the University of Guelph talks to Charlsie about Subway's grilled chicken.
Food scientist Bohrer wasn't just the only scientist "Marketplace" talked to. They had help from Trent University's Wildlife Forensic DNA Laboratory in Peterborough, Ontario, under researcher Matt Harnden and his team. According to their DNA tests, Subway (out of the 4 other national chains) took a big hit — their two grilled chicken products, grilled chicken strips and grilled chicken fillet (used in their sub sandwiches), were the only two chickens to have the least number of actual chicken in them. The fillet? About 50% chicken. The strips? Worse — less than 50% chicken. No matter how you cut it, the results don't lie. So, not just Subway, but all of these companies are taking a hit. Why? Here's the specifics of their investigation:
"An unadulterated piece of chicken from the store should come in at 100 per cent chicken DNA. Seasoning, marinating or processing meat would bring that number down, so fast food samples seasoned for taste wouldn't be expected to hit that 100 per cent target."
Matt's team tested 6 samples of grilled chicken. (For the study's full paper as published by Trent University's Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Research Centre, click here). The tests were based on the meat samples alone without any sauces or condiments.
McDonald's Country Chicken - Grilled (NOTE: As it turns out, McDonald's Canada doesn't serve this sandwich anymore. However, this information came from a webpage found in the Internet Archive.)
A&W Chicken Grill Deluxe (NOTE: Just like McDonald's, A&W Restaurants Canada doesn't serve this sandwich anymore. This is also from the Internet Archive.)
Tim Hortons Chipotle Chicken Grilled Wrap (NOTE: Tim Hortons still sells this product under the name "Chipotle Cheddar Chicken Wrap". The link goes to their Canadian Menu Nutrition & Wellness page. To access the nutrition facts, click LUNCH > SANDWICHES, WRAPS & MORE > WRAPS > CHIPOTLE CHEDDAR CHICKEN.)
True to their word, Subway was actually dead last. Their results were so bad, Matt and his fellow researchers had to test Subway's chicken AGAIN. They thought it was an outlier! According to the CBC, here was the team's process for getting results:
"In the first round of tests, the lab tested two samples of five of the meat products, and one sample of the Subway strips. From each of those samples, the researchers isolated three smaller samples and tested each of those. [...] Subway's results were such an outlier that the team decided to test them again, biopsying five new oven roasted chicken pieces, and five new orders of chicken strips."
After all the tests, the lab was ready to share its results. Here's what they found:
A&W Chicken Grill Deluxe averaged 89.4 per cent chicken DNA
McDonald's Country Chicken - Grilled averaged 84.9 per cent chicken DNA
Tim Hortons Chipotle Chicken Grilled Wrap averaged 86.5 per cent chicken DNA
Wendy's Grilled Chicken Sandwich averaged 88.5 per cent chicken DNA
Oh, and remember the top of the article that kept talking about Subway? Well, here's the point. (Get it, the decimal point? Ha!)
"... the oven roasted chicken scored 53.6 per cent chicken DNA, and the chicken strips were found to have just 42.8 per cent chicken DNA. The majority of the remaining DNA? Soy."
While the other chains' chickens were close to 100% and their's weren't, Subway went the extra mile, criticizing the CBC and the "Marketplace" report as well as filing a defamation lawsuit against them. They also had the only sandwiches listed to have had soy fillers compared to the other chains. Here's a copy of their statement to CBC "Marketplace" and a screenshot of the headline:
"SUBWAY Canada cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted. However, we are concerned by the alleged findings you cite with respect to the proportion of soy content. Our chicken strips and oven roasted chicken contain 1% or less of soy protein. We use this ingredient in these products as a means to help stabilize the texture and moisture. All of our chicken items are made from 100% white meat chicken which is marinated, oven roasted and grilled. We tested our chicken products recently for nutritional and quality attributes and found it met our food quality standards. We will look into this again with our supplier to ensure that the chicken is meeting the high standard we set for all of our menu items and ingredients."
Well, too bad for them. After 2 years, Subway ended up LOSING MONEY because of the "Marketplace" investigation while Ontario Superior Court Justice E.M. Morgan DISMISSED THEIR LAWSUIT, siding with the CBC. (To read the 25-page ruling, click here.)
"The Marketplace investigation met the "'public interest' test," was an example of investigative journalism, and therefore is protected under Section 137.1(3) of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act, [...] The so-called anti-SLAPP (for "strategic lawsuits against public participation") provision allows a defendant to ask the court to dismiss a lawsuit if they can show it was initiated to shield the plaintiff from criticism and stymie free speech on a matter of public interest. 'The Marketplace report raised a quintessential consumer protection issue. There are few things in society of more acute interest to the public than what they eat,' Morgan wrote."
Now, you must be thinking to yourself: "Is this over? What does Canadian fast-food have to do with my terrible school lunch?" Don't worry, we have the answers. To prove them, here is our email conversation with George Kirby, Whitsons' General Manager of Food Service Operations in the Mount Vernon City School District:
THE JOURNAL MVSA:
Dear Mr. George Kirby,
My name is Bryan Santiago, a 10th grader at the Mount Vernon STEAM Academy and student editor-in-chief of the school's news blog, The Journal. I would like to ask you, in your capacity as Whitsons' General Manager for the Mount Vernon City School District's Food Service Operations, about the truthfulness of your claims on Whitsons' website for school nutrition (https://www.whitsons.com/food/our-services/school-nutrition-our-specialty). The second bullet on that page states, and I quote, "Wholesome ingredients prepared fresh from scratch, with a focus on whole grains, fresh produce, lean meats and healthy snacks." Today, the 18th of December of 2019, during 6th period lunch at 11:55 am, one of the choices for hot lunch was a faux rib sandwich. While it was served next to a whole-wheat kaiser roll, it appears that your "rib" meat patty had seared-on grill marks and appears to be molded. To prove this, I have provided photos from the meal as well as a clip from an episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) consumer advocacy show "Marketplace". In said episode, the grilled chicken from grilled chicken sandwiches at national fast-food chains across Canada were tested to see if they were 100% chicken. The clip, in particular, analyzes Subway's grilled chicken, which appears to look similar to your product being served at our school, and possibly other schools across the MVCSD as well as other schools in the area Whitsons serves.
I would like an explanation of what is molded into the faux rib patty, and if these observations are true. I do hope by being transparent and honest, more people (especially students) will trust in school lunches and, by extension, Whitsons. I thank you for reading my inquiry and will look forward to your response.
GEORGE KIRBY:
Good Morning Bryan,
Thank you for your email. As a company we take great pride in partnering with our school communities to provide a dining experience that offers high-quality and nutritious meals that students will enjoy and choose to eat. We are committed to providing clean, natural ingredients, organic, non-GMO and locally sourced products when and wherever possible. Our menus feature items made with wholesome ingredients prepared from scratch as often as possible from recipes that reflect the individual needs of our customers, regional taste preferences, seasonality, and the latest culinary trends.
Whitsons’ programs are based on strong nutritional guidelines, principles, and cooking techniques and adhere to the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program which requires strict compliance with guidelines set forth by the United States Department of Agriculture which are based on expert recommendations from the Institute of Medicine. If you are interested in real time nutrition facts on any of our menus you can follow this link https://www.fdmealplanner.com/. That being said, we are open and willing to engage in conversations on how to improve our program at Mt. Vernon and we value your input. Best Regards and Happy Holidays
With that, we did in fact visit fdmealplanner.com for a look at the District's menu. Below is a screenshot of what we found; (to find it, click the link, enter "STEAM" in the search box, and click "Mt Vernon STEAM HS"). To support our earlier observational findings that the barbecue rib is "molded like Play-Doh", according to food scientist Bohrer, it is something called a "reconstructed product". That is, in simpler science terms, small pieces of meat squished together with other ingredients for better taste, longer shelf life, and cheapness reasons.
Would Whitsons want to be just like Subway? Well, outsourced food service operations is a business, and businesses have to make money. We just don't know for sure. What we do know is that our observational findings support our conclusion that this "fresh from scratch" meal was made in a processing plant and our other meals are probably fakes too. We are in the midst of reaching out to Whitsons Corporate for more information. If we can get a reasonable explanation or even just see the ingredient lists, we'll be able to check on how accurate these claims are. To check out more information on the school lunch industry, check out this video from CNBC:
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