According to a February 27 press release, Arby’s has begun offering “Arby’s Chicken Naturalsâ„¢, made with 100% all-natural chicken.” What exactly does “100% all-natural” mean? Does that mean all the chicken meat in their sandwiches is now guaranteed to come from real, actual chickens that were alive at some point? Or are they actually trying to imply that the chicken in, say, an Arby’s Chicken Bacon n’ Swiss sandwich, is now going to be organic?

The press release goes on. “By starting with chicken in its most natural form, we have created a better chicken sandwich.” [quote from Doug Behham, Arby’s President and CEO] Other leading fast food companies offer chicken breast sandwiches with up to 29.3 percent of solutions made of various elements including water, seasoning (salt, spices and spice extract), oil, modified food starch, sodium phosphates.”

That’s all well and good, but they never get any more specific in the release than saying the chicken will now be “100% all-natural” or that they are now “starting with chicken in its most natural form,” which is, I can only assume, an actual living chicken. That’s very encouraging.

Interestingly (sort of), in the January 3, 2005 press release announcing the test marketing of said “all-natural chicken,” they say that other fast food companies offer chicken sandwiches with “up to 27.1 percent of solutions made of various elements…” That’s 2.2 percent less than the most current press release! Has the allowance for water, seasoning, oil, modified food starch and sodium phosphates gone up in the past year in the fast food chicken sandwiches we know and love, or is this a distortion of fact perpetrated by the Arby’s marketing machine?!

I intend to find out.

Stay tuned.