Coles shopper sickened after discovering green meat inside chicken
A Brisbane Coles customer has made the stomach-churning discovery of “green” flesh inside a chicken she bought for her family's dinner.
The shopper, who is currently in isolation with her family, bought the Lilydale Free Range Chicken from Coles Wynnum West in Brisbane on Tuesday, June 7.
After returning home from the supermarket, the woman decided to shred the fresh chicken to make soup for her family’s dinner – which is when she made the shocking discovery.
“Picked up our fresh Lilydale Free Range Chicken from Coles to make some soup for dinner tonight, as I went to shred it for the soup I noticed it was GREEN,” she wrote on the Coles Facebook page.
“Literally feel so sick,” added the woman, before asking fellow shoppers whether green flesh was normal in store-bought chicken.
Coles responds: 'It isn't harmful'
A Coles spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia that while they were happy to resolve the issue with the customer, the chicken does not align with the supermarket's "strict quality standards".
"We’re really happy the customer received a refund as even though it isn’t harmful, this isn’t how we want our chicken to reach our customers," said the spokesperson.
"This isn’t a Coles product, we have strict quality standards that our poultry partners work to [and] we will let our supplier know about this."
‘I wanted to vomit’, says Coles shopper
Speaking with Yahoo News Australia, the distraught shopper said the shocking find was “absolutely disgusting”.
“I wanted to vomit and I felt bad and shocked,” she said.
She revealed that after contacting Coles about the chicken in question, she received a full refund of $12.
However, she said no amount of refund or money from the supermarket could “take that experience away”.
The Queenslander contacted the supplier, Lilydale, who informed her that the green in the chicken was a result of Deep Pectoral Myopathy (DPM), also known as “Green Muscle Disease”.
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Lilydale says green flesh is ‘Green Muscle Disease’
In their response, Lilydale cited Dr Alfirevich, Baida Poultry Veterinarian, who stated: “Green muscle disease relates specifically to the degeneration or necrosis of the deep pectoral muscle”.
"It is caused by the inability of the pectoral (breast) muscle to sufficiently expand when the bird flaps its wings [...] the end result is necrosis, or death and degeneration of the muscle.”
Dr Alfirevich explained that the green colour typically occurs well after processing, which makes it difficult for inspectors and Quality Assurance teams to detect.
Lilydale assured the shopper that the green muscle is a “cosmetic blemish only” and “does not have any public health implications”.
Shopper swears off meat after ‘disgusting' discovery
The experience proved too much for the shopper who revealed she will never buy chicken from Coles again and has sworn off meat.
“They said it was green muscle disease and it’s fine if you eat it, basically,” she said.
“Never again. Trying to be vegan,” concluded the shopper.
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