I work in a chicken factory. AMA!

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

Anything you might’ve wanted to know about what really goes on in a chicken processing factory I might be able to tell you! (I’ve only been there 6 weeks so I don’t know EVERYTHING. But I know a bit!)

I have an update on this! Earlier on we were dealing with LOADS of meat that had this texture. Our QC lady was next to me and she said that it is indeed ‘spaghetti meat’ and this one particular farm is awful for it. It’s something that happens while the bird is still alive and there’s nothing that can fix it. She didn’t say what actually causes it though, but it’s probably what @PenelopeJoanSterling said.

thank you for the update,

Was that a chicken breeder? They breed a batch then that all go off to the abattoir and the litter from 6-8 weeks is taken out? Two barns on 4 week rotation,?

Surely if they are gassed it can't be good when we eat it?

Dare I ask what goes into nuggets and hot dogs...? 🫣

I used to work with someone who's relative worked in a chicken factory. They told me there was a room which you couldn't open to door to as it was dangerous for some reason... Fumes maybe? Anyone someone opened the door and ended up sick for months and even still wasn't right. Would you have any idea if this is true and if so what it could be?

Thank you for one of the best and most interesting AMA I've ever read.

This is incredibly interesting, but I’m SO glad I’m vegetarian!

Thank you OP! Great thread and you write really well. You should write a book!

Ditto. Fascinating.

Was that in the UK? In the US they sterilise chicken meat with chlorine and that was the gas used to disable soldiers in WWi. There may have been a processing room that was dangerous to go into. The door should have been locked.

Ah I missed this one! No, Kill and EV is a different department, it’s highly unlikely I’d end up in there unless a role opened up and I applied for a transfer. I’ve recently become a bit friendly with the Kill and EV team leader actually, she’s been at the factory nearly 30yrs! She’s so nice and asks me how I am every time I see her (I got in trouble the other week and she was in the office as the third party/witness while I received my bollocking).

Our chickens are from free range farms. If you scroll through my comments I did put something about the state of them when they come in on the lorry though.

I know they told me! It all gets collected by a by-product company who makes… something with it. I just can’t remember what! Although… the bones don’t get wasted. They empty carcasses and the skin all get ground up into hotdog/nugget etc filling 😬

It’s absolute chaos 😅 The lady who did my induction has worked there 30+ years. She said in the old days when they used to be killed by the electric bath, they ALWAYS had escapees because they were constantly opening the travelling crates to get birds out. She said they had a pair who absolutely refused to be caught and ended up living wild for a short while in the wasteland behind the factory until a fox found them!

Are you the poster from before who was returning back to work and ended up at the chicken factory (I only remember because it was an interesting post).

How are you finding it back in the workforce?

The gas used is (I believe) the only consumption safe method, they’re killed by the level of CO2 being raised until they die.

Hotdog/nugget/pie etc filling is empty carcasses after the meat has been removed, and skin. So nothing as gross as body parts, heads and feathers! Very little meat in there. At a team brief recently we actually got told off for leaving too much meat on the carcasses because the machine can’t cope with it!

I’ve no idea I’m afraid, I’ve never been warned about anything like that before!

Yes that’s me! Gosh it’s so much hard work, a real shock to the system 😅 I can’t exactly say I’m enjoying it, but It’s made a bit easier because most of the other workers are absolutely lovely and almost always willing to help you if you get stuck or overwhelmed with too much chicken on your table when you’re trimming.

I grew up near a chicken factory and there was always talk of escaped chickens and people keeping them!

i also worked for the summer in a chicken factory but my side dealt with the cooked meat.
because i was only there for the summer, quite inexperienced, i was often put on the carcass belt.
never given an electric knife.
we were given a free chicken every week. i was a vegetarian at the time!
i remember everything was used. we had to wash our wellies before we came in, no fag buts allowed to get into the room, as everything indeed was used.
i am a dab hand at cutting chicken now.

I think I'm right in saying argon can be used and is much kinder because they can't taste or smell it and it doesn't burn, but it's also much more expensive so they don't tend to use it.

I can bone out a pig carcass, should we start a thread on skills people wouldn't expect us to have 😁 ?

This has been a rare thread that I’ve read from start to finish. You sound a great person and write really well. You’ve made the job sound pretty interesting to be fair

That would be a fascinating read!

awwwwwww at least they died free, bless em

Gosh we don’t have electric knives! Everyone works in such close proximity to each other I’m surprised there aren’t regularly accidents tbh 🤣

Yeah we have a welly wash machine thing, it’s like a carwash with the spinning brushes, but in miniature 🤣

We don’t get free chicken, but we do get cheap chicken (10kg for £30) and cheap eggs (60 for £2.50) and apparently we get a free turkey at Christmas!

that is a good deal 60 eggs for 2.50