Disgusted to find a worm inside a supermarket chicken breast

jingramm

Senior member
Oct 25, 2009
779
2
76
I bought skinless chicken breasts from a pretty good supermarket chain and was in the process of cooking it in a frying pan. I noticed a hole emerge and a skinny worm trying to escape. I threw all of the chicken away and lost all my appetite (forcing myself to eat some veggie and rice instead). I plan to try to get a refund from the supermarket but I might never want to eat chicken again after seeing this.
 

Strk

Lifer
Nov 23, 2003
10,197
4
76
Worm or maggot? If anything, that was probably the cleanest part of the chicken.
 

Hugo Drax

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2011
5,647
47
91
Chicken is a dirty meat. When I prepare it I handle it carefully, separate utensils and cutting board etc..
 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
2
81
Chicken is a dirty meat. When I prepare it I handle it carefully, separate utensils and cutting board etc..

Anything organic has the risk of bacteria. Proper food safety should be practiced regardless.
 

Mai72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2012
11,562
1,741
126
I just had chicken breast tonight. No maggots or worms. At least I didn't see any.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
69,311
13,047
126
www.anyf.ca
Nasty. I hate dealing with raw chicken. I pretty much buy it frozen and throw it in the oven frozen and cook it for like an hour. Not that this would stop worms.... I never even considered that.

Occasionally when eating chicken I'll hit a spot that tastes really nasty, I find that can ruin my appetite for the whole meal. The chicken will taste great and all then suddenly, hit that one spot. Can never figure out what it is. I wonder if it's bugs/worms/etc. I can never tell a difference by looking at the place I bit into though, it will look normal, just have a bad taste to it. I'm not even sure how to describe the taste. It's almost like a rotten taste. Anyone ever notice that? It seems to be typical of lower quality chicken like fast food... McDonald's McNuggets are notorious for it, I don't even eat those anymore. it's too bad because they actually taste good, except for when you hit a bad one.

I buy my chicken from a local meat place now where it's higher quality organic meat. Grain fed, free range etc... So far I have been lucky with that chicken, it taste great and never have I hit one of those "bad" spots. And now I will have to start checking for worms, thanks for even making me think of that. :p
 

BUTCH1

Lifer
Jul 15, 2000
20,433
1,769
126
Pics or gtfo.

This, after handling, cooking, selling meat for 35+ years I have never heard of such a thing happening, even if a worm of some type were present the refrigeration and the death of it's host would have meant it would be already be dead.
 

jingramm

Senior member
Oct 25, 2009
779
2
76
This, after handling, cooking, selling meat for 35+ years I have never heard of such a thing happening, even if a worm of some type were present the refrigeration and the death of it's host would have meant it would be already be dead.

Google search worm in chicken breast

Right after I created this thread, I ended up taking the chicken out of the trash and returning it already so I wasn't able to take any pics
 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
2
81
This, after handling, cooking, selling meat for 35+ years I have never heard of such a thing happening, even if a worm of some type were present the refrigeration and the death of it's host would have meant it would be already be dead.

Refrigeration might not be enough, will probably just put the worm to sleep. Really need to deep freeze the meat to do anything meaningful.

This is what the FDA recommends for seafood.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/UCM252393.pdf
 

Jaepheth

Platinum Member
Apr 29, 2006
2,572
25
91
Imagine it from the worm's point of view:

You're chilling in your home and the fire alarm goes off (probably some clueless guy next door playing with matches); there's a 4 foot thick wall of solid chicken meat between you and freedom, and you have to eat your way out or die trying.
 
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Charmonium

Lifer
May 15, 2015
10,250
3,297
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I googled chicken parasites and found this - http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/parasitic-worms-in-chickens.html.

Read at your own risk. Nothing really graphic, just line drawings, but still . . .

My guess is that there was a sort of cross contamination. IOW, none of the parasites seem to live in the muscle of the chicken but in other body parts so when they're butchered, it might be possible for them to migrate from the entrails and other parts to the meat.
 

disappoint

Lifer
Dec 7, 2009
10,132
382
126
Imagine it from the worm's point of view:

You're chilling in your home and the fire alarm goes off (probably some clueless guy next door playing with matches); there's a 4 foot thick wall of solid chicken meat between you and freedom, and you have to eat your way out or die trying.

Hah! Preposterous. Do you really expect me to believe that if worms had the cognitive ability of humans they would ever notice a fire while busy playing candy crush on their cellphones?

never seen a worm in any of my meat, been cooking meats for years

It's the ones you don't see that you have to worry about.
 

Valerie Thompson

Junior Member
Jul 12, 2017
2
1
16
I bought skinless chicken breasts from a pretty good supermarket chain and was in the process of cooking it in a frying pan. I noticed a hole emerge and a skinny worm trying to escape. I threw all of the chicken away and lost all my appetite (forcing myself to eat some veggie and rice instead). I plan to try to get a refund from the supermarket but I might never want to eat chicken again after seeing this.
 

Valerie Thompson

Junior Member
Jul 12, 2017
2
1
16
I bought a chicken from a well known Food Hall. It was for Fathers day. I started preparing it mid morning and soon noticed a pink segmented worm dangling out of it's rear end. I had to cut it out and put the packaging and the tapeworm in the freezer.I cooked the chicken extra long to hopefully kill off any thing else. I didn't have anything else for .lunch to serve! I didn't tell anyone and only served the breast meat. I returned the packaging and worm to the produce manager at the food hall, keeping my voice low so as not to frighten the customers. The manager was really taken aback as he had never seen or heard of this before.
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,418
30,502
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I bought a chicken from a well known Food Hall. It was for Fathers day. I started preparing it mid morning and soon noticed a pink segmented worm dangling out of it's rear end. I had to cut it out and put the packaging and the tapeworm in the freezer.I cooked the chicken extra long to hopefully kill off any thing else. I didn't have anything else for .lunch to serve! I didn't tell anyone and only served the breast meat. I returned the packaging and worm to the produce manager at the food hall, keeping my voice low so as not to frighten the customers. The manager was really taken aback as he had never seen or heard of this before.

well, good thing you served it to your family and then got your money back!
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,842
4,785
146
Wow you returned it? Props, I wish I was that frugal. I would have lit the trash on fire.

A lot of times you don't actually have to return the item. I had an issue where a bag of dried beans we bought had little bugs all throughout. When I brought it back to the store they just said no need to bring it back next time. If they see a $120 grocery bill and you want a refund on $5-10 they believe you. At least where I live, maybe if you're dirty enough to shop at Walmarts they have to check things more stingily.

Which someone has told me that it is incredibly common for this by the way - they say the factories they are produced in have tons of these and they essentially lay lots of eggs that eventually hatch. No idea on the truth of that.

That said, it's almost not worth driving up to the store just to get back your $5 or whatever, maybe try calling the manufacturer of the meat itself? Bad publicity is more likely to grease the wheels than simply returning it to the store.