Florida Man Stunned By Chick-Fil-A Ingredients: Are They Bad?

As consumers, we like to know what we are spending money on and as human beings we always love to know what we are putting in our bodies. Sometimes that means having to ask for an itemized list of ingredients.

One Florida man took it that far recently in a now-viral TikTok video. User @scottlubik went to Chick-fil-a and requested an itemized printout of all the ingredients in a Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich and he was stunned by how many additives are in there.

His video starts with the caption ‘why isn’t there a warning on a pack of cigarettes but not here?’ He then says asking for the ingredients “should go over like a fart in Church.” But should he actually be worried?

Making Sense Of The Ingredients In A Chick-fil-a Sandwich

Social media algorithms, TikTok’s in particular, work through feedback loops. When a video is posted, TikTok first shares it to a small group of users who are likely interested and if they watch the video to completion and engage with the clip then it is shared to a larger audience.

In this case, the subset of users the video was first shared to are likely people that are skeptical about the ingredients in their food. More specifically, skeptical about the scientific names of those ingredients.

Case in point, the top comment on the video comes from u/Nathan who wrote “Yess! The FDA needs to do their f—— job and eliminate all chemicals in food that are un safe for consumption!!!”

But is there anything in the sandwich that is deemed outright unsafe?

Let’s take a look…

The first two ingredients, chicken (boneless, skinless with rib meat) and water are outright safe. There are no concerns about those. The third ingredient is enriched bleached flour which is classified as ‘generally safe’ due to the fact that some consider it to be overly processed but nothing in there is actually harmful.

Going down the list, next we have Peanut Oil, Soybean Oil, and Palm Kernel Oil, all of which are Generally Safe. According to a study published in Science Direct, Soybean Oil can cause inflammation in large quantities but not in the amounts you would ingest in this sandwich.

Next is Dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foam agent that is common in fast food and classified as safe by the FDA. MSG (Monosodium glutamate) which some people report as causing headaches but the actual scientific research on this suggests otherwise, according to this study in Pubmed.

The leavening agents are all safe in these quantities. Calcium propionate is safe but some report digestive irritation. DATEM is classified as safe but correlated with heart issues over time. Soy lecithin is safe, Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is safe, and the list goes on and on.

Without listing out every ingredient individually, the only ‘unsafe’ ingredients in the Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich are tied to allergies: sesame, egg, soy, and wheat. As well as gluten for those with gluten intolerance.

What are people saying about this?

Scott Lubik’s video has been viewed over 321,000 times on TikTok. By and large, commenters seem fearful of the ingredients in the sandwich.

With 1,200 ‘likes’ on the comment, u/UGotSwayned wrote “don’t single out Chick-fil-a, just about every fast food place is the same” And user @Annatta added “that’s A LOT of ingredients in a chicken sandwich.”

Ultimately, I think everyone (myself included) would be shocked to see what a label looked like if we made food at home. So many ingredients are included in the things we cook with and must be listed out on a label.

Scientific literacy is also playing a huge role here. At no point in our lives are most people taught the scientific names of these ingredients. It is information people come to learn themselves. And not in an educational setting so often the ingredients are demonized.

Is the Chick-fil-a sandwich healthy?

Chick-fil-a is, first and foremost, fast food. The quality (and taste) is definitely top tier and beating the competition. They drive thru is as organized as any in the game. But it is fast food.

Defining ‘healthy’ is tricky. ‘Healthy’ could simply mean ‘meets nutritional goals’ and if your nutritional goals for lunch are 18g of fat, 41g of carbohydrates, and 29g of protein (440 kcal) then a Chick-fil-a sandwich could be classified as ‘healthy’ for you.’

More often than not, when we talk about ‘healthy’ we are actually referring to whether or not something is highly caloric or highly processed.

In my recent weight loss/muscle gain journey, I have actually found Chick-fil-a to be enormously helpful on road trips. A 12-pack of their grilled chicken nuggets are 200 kcal, 4.5g fat, 2g carbs, and 38g protein. I’ll pick up 24 nuggets on the road to pack on the protein without blowing out my daily fat/carb intake.

Should you avoid Chick-fil-a because of the ingredients? That is entirely up to you. Ultimately, everything in the sandwich is safe in moderation unless you have a specific allergy in which case you should follow your doctor’s orders.

BroBible will be testing this out later this week (tomorrow), visiting Chick-fil-a to independently verify this list of ingredients in the chicken sandwich, and cross-verifying (again) that they are safe.