Woman outraged as Coles says green chicken 'safe to eat'
A Victorian woman preparing for her weekend roast dinner got an unexpected shock when she cut open her supermarket-bought chicken to discover the flesh inside was green.
Posting a picture of the chicken, bought from Coles in an inner-city Melbourne suburb, the woman wrote: “Upon cooking dinner tonight, we opened a packet of 4 chicken breasts to separate … we added 1 to a tray of roast veggies we were in the process of cooking, and bagged the rest to freeze. On the last one, this is what we see. Absolutely disgusting!”
“We had to throw out the dinner we were cooking,” she added, noting the RSPCA-approved chicken was still within its expiry date.
“Outraged. We will not be buying from Coles after this.”
“Omg yuck,” one person wrote beneath the picture.
“Comes with free smooshed avocado,” wrote another.
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However, a Coles spokesperson has confirmed that the green flesh is neither disease nor poison – and is thoroughly safe to eat.
The green flesh is a result of deep pectoral myopathy – colloquially referred to as Green Muscle Disease – which occurs when a bird flaps its wings too vigorously, causing oxygen deficiency and muscle discolouration.
“Deep pectoral myopathy (DPM) is a green discolouration of the flesh caused when swelling occurs as a result of oxygen deficiency in the muscle,” a Coles spokesperson told Yahoo 7 News.
“This usually happens from the bird flapping its wings too much. It is not harmful to eat and the taste of the chicken would not be altered.”
However Coles said anyone who had purchased a “green chicken” was welcome to return the item to their nearest store for a refund or replacement.
The condition is common in heavy-breasted broiler chickens, but it is not detectable from the outside – it is only obvious once the chicken is cut into or sliced open.
