Soup maker Campbell’s responds to ‘absurd’ charge it uses 3D-printed chicken
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A Campbell’s senior executive was secretly recorded allegedly making the chicken claim by an employee who had brought a lawsuit against him.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Follow topic:
- Campbell's denies claims its soups contain "3D-printed" chicken and target "poor people," calling such assertions "absurd."
- VP Martin Bally is on leave pending investigation into a secretly recorded rant with alleged racist and disparaging remarks.
- Employee Robert Garza alleges he was fired for reporting the rant where Bally criticised Campbell's "highly processed foods".
AI generated
NEW YORK – Food giant Campbell’s has dismissed as “absurd” claims allegedly made by a senior executive, who has since been placed on leave, that its soups are made with “3D-printed” chicken and consumed by “poor people”.
The company said Mr Martin Bally, a vice-president and chief information security officer, had been put on temporary leave pending an investigation, after an employee lawsuit accused him of making racist comments and denigrating Campbell’s products during an hour-long, expletive-laced rant.
The employee, Mr Robert Garza, said the comments were made in a conversation he secretly recorded and later shared with a local media outlet in Michigan.
In the audio, a voice – allegedly Mr Bally’s – is deriding Campbell’s “highly processed foods” as “(expletive) for... poor people.”
“Bioengineered meat – I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer,” he reportedly says.
Mr Garza, who charges the company fired him for reporting the rant, said Mr Bally also called Indian employees “idiots” and stressed how he disliked working with them.
The Campbell’s brand enjoys iconic status at home and abroad, and is best known for its line of canned soups which artist Andy Warhol made the subject of a series of paintings that became synonymous with him.
While Campbell’s acknowledged using genetically modified crops such as corn and soybean, the chicken “comes from long-trusted” federally-approved suppliers “and meets our high quality standards,” it said in a statement.
“The comments heard on the recording about our food are not only inaccurate, they are absurd,” Campbell’s said.
“We do not use lab-grown chicken or any form of artificial or bioengineered meat in our soups. We are proud of the food we make and the high-quality ingredients we use.” AFP
