What is White Striping in Chicken? Is it a Problem?

The life of a broiler chicken is one of incredible suffering. Although chickens are sensitive, intelligent, social beings, their first few weeks of life on intensive factory farms offer little comfort. On the contrary, these birds can barely keep their eyes open because the air is so thick with ammonia. Putrid waste covers the floor, leaving painful ammonia burns on their soft skin. Their legs buckle and break beneath the weight of their engorged muscles. And, because they’re unable to move, many of these gentle birds die of thirst.

But that’s not even all these chickens endure. Before they’re transported to the slaughterhouse at just six or seven weeks of age, chickens raised for meat often succumb to disease. Some chickens suffer from high blood pressure, swollen abdomens, and cardiac arrest. Their lungs, hearts, and tissues are severely weakened by their poor health and stressful environments. Others develop diseases in their muscles—like spaghetti meat, woody breast, and green muscle disease.

One of the most common diseases among chickens raised for meat is shockingly easy to see with the naked eye. Known as “white striping,” this particular disease most often shows up in the breast muscles of chickens as distinctive white stripes of fat and collagen. Look at the boneless, skinless chicken breasts at your local supermarket, and you’re likely to find it. The evidence is right there. As our new investigative report reveals, 100% of the top 16 highest-grossing supermarket chains and their brands carry chicken breasts with white striping.

What is White Striping in Chicken?

White striping is extremely easy to spot in chicken meat sold at supermarkets. These fatty and connective tissues show up as visible white lines in the muscles of birds who have been selectively bred for fast growth.

90% of chickens eaten in the US come from just two extremely fast-growing breeds: the Cobb 500 and the Ross 308. In order to turn a profit, billions of chickens are forced to balloon to more than double their natural size in a painfully short amount of time. As a result, they face premature death, excruciating deformities, and diseases like white striping.

Though scientists are still studying the causes of muscle diseases in chickens, one fact is clear: white stripes show up because the chicken’s body is overwhelmed by unnaturally rapid muscle growth—something that occurs due to profit-driven breeding practices that aim for the fastest growth possible. These white stripes are a visible reminder of what a bird endured on their way to the supermarket shelf.

To put it simply: white striping is evidence of fast growth, and fast growth is evidence of corporate greed.

What's Wrong with Chicken Breast?

Chicken breast, or white meat, features heavily in US diets—and it’s also highly susceptible to white striping.

Since the 1950s, nearly all chickens raised for meat have lived on factory farms, where they’ve been selectively bred over multiple generations to grow larger and larger, faster and faster. In other words, this fast growth is due to the chickens’ genes. It’s hereditary. 100 years ago, chickens reached a “market weight” of 2.5 pounds in 112 days. Today, most chickens are slaughtered when they’re still chicks—in the US, they reach a market weight of 6.41 pounds at around 47 days old. Over the course of the past century, the largest, fastest-growing birds were bred with the largest, fastest-growing birds. As a result, the chickens of today are more than double the size they were in the 1920s. And they reach market weight in less than half the time.

For birds on factory farms, white striping starts to take effect when they're still just babies, as early as two weeks after hatching. By the time they’re six weeks old, nearly all chickens have noticeable white striping in their breast muscles.

The next time you visit your local grocery store, take a close look at the boneless, skinless chicken breasts. These large pectoral muscles suffer the most from diseases like white striping.

The chicken industry knows consumers avoid meat with white stripes, so it conceals the most obviously diseased cuts in heavily processed products. Keep in mind that other cuts—like thighs, drumsticks, and strips—might not have visible white stripes. But chances are extremely high they came from a diseased bird.

What Causes White Striping in Chicken Breast?

The weight these birds gain at such a young age is concentrated in their breast muscles, which become engorged and susceptible to diseases like white striping.

In short, the chickens’ bodies can’t keep up with this unnatural pace of growth. Their muscles grow much faster than the surrounding tissue. Their hearts struggle, too, unable to pump enough blood to their ever-expanding muscles. Without enough oxygen and nutrients, their muscles become inflamed. Collagen and fat replace the damaged muscle in distinctive white stripes that look like scars.

Nutritional Value

White striping in chicken meat is fatty tissue that has replaced muscle. That means chicken meat with white striping has a lot more fat.

A 2013 study by the University of Bologna found that chicken breasts with moderate or severe white striping had 224% higher fat content, 9% less protein, and lower-quality protein than breasts with no white striping. The researchers put it simply: white striping causes a “worsening of nutritional value.”

Do Chickens with White Striping Suffer?

More research is needed to determine whether white striping itself causes pain. What we do know, however, is that chickens who develop white striping endured great suffering during their short lives.

Chickens develop white striping because they’ve been selectively bred over multiple generations. This disease is caused by fast growth—which has been shown time and again, in both research and investigative footage, to cause debilitating pain to birds.

Rapidly growing chickens often develop leg deformities so severe that even tiny chicks are unable to walk or stand. Some will suffer heart attacks, and others—those too weak or injured to survive until they’re sent to the slaughterhouse—will either be culled or die of dehydration on the waste-strewn floor of the factory farm.

White Striping in the US: Poultry Market Statistics

Chicken is the most popular meat in the United States. According to the National Chicken Council, Americans consume more chicken than any other nation in the world. Because just a few factory farms and large corporations dominate the poultry industry—and exclusively raise fast-growth birds—the vast majority of chicken meat purchased in the US contains white striping.

A 2016 study, which examined 285 chickens, found white striping in 96% of them. More recently, a 2021 study looking at broiler chickens raised in a commercial setting found that 90% of birds showed white striping as soon as four to six weeks after hatching.

Does Organic Chicken Have White Striping?

Consumers often look to food labels to assure them of high animal welfare standards. But an “organic” label doesn’t ensure the meat came from a healthy bird.

Organic standards do rule out certain practices, like giving chickens antibiotics. But they don’t stop companies from breeding chickens for fast growth that leaves its tell-tale sign: white striping. Organic and non-organic meat alike comes from fast-growth breeds of chickens, which means white striping often shows up regardless of whether the label says “organic.”

What You Can Do

Restaurants, supermarkets, and other massive food companies have the power to end this abuse.

Join thousands of other compassionate advocates who are calling for an end to corporate cruelty. It’s time to demand that companies stop forcing chickens to suffer inside factory farms. Let’s take a stand—together. These animals deserve so much better.