Hold on to your hats, people! I am about to share what I seriously think is the first negative review of Zaycon Foods! I’ve scoured the internet and have not managed to find one person with one negative thing to say about their Zaycon experience. Don’t worry though, it’s not ALL negative!
Zaycon Foods is a company that brings wholesale buying power to the public. They negotiate with meat suppliers to sell large cases of meat at a discounted price. I ordered one case of chicken, 40 lbs of BLSL breast, at $1.79/lb, or $71.60. When it’s delivery day you drive to the pick-up area you chose and they load it into your car.
Zaycon came highly recommended to me by friends and I was unable to find one negative thing on the web. The price was amazing for my area considering the non-sale price of BLSL chicken breast here is $5.49/lb. I almost always refuse to pay more than $2.99/lb but that deal only comes around every 3-4 months. Twice a year BLSL chicken breast will drop to $1.99/lb and I’ll buy 30-40 lbs if the store hasn’t run out by the time I get there.
I was almost irrationally excited when I placed my order. My family eats a lot of chicken and it’s so darned versatile to boot. Part of the reason I went ahead and ordered was because the pick-up date fell on a day when I was available, and at a time I was available. Since I had to drive 45 minutes from my home to my pick-up place it needs to fall on the right day and time. That only seems logical, right? After discussing it with my husband on February 24th I ordered one 40lb case of BLSL chicken breast with a pick-up date of March 8th at 1:00pm.
A week before pick-up I received an email saying the date was changed to March 7th at 1:00pm. Ok, this was a bit of a problem since I had an appointment an hour away at 2pm, but I could make it work if I was there at exactly 1pm. At 12:39pm I was just 3 miles from the pick-up site when I received a text message saying the order was delayed and pick-up was now 5:30pm. Excuse me? They sent the message 21 minutes before pick-up time??
I pulled over and called Zaycon. I explained them what a hassle it was, that I was already in town and I could not spare the time and gas money to drive back, besides that I had to have my kid at dance class at 5:30. The representative, Tammy, was very nice and asked if I could find someone else to get the order in exchange for a $10 credit on my account. I was told I cannot get a refund but if I cancelled my order I could be issued a partial credit. I called my husband and he said he could manage to break away from work early and get it on his way home, even though it wasn’t on the way.
When 4:30 came around I received another text message saying the time was again changed to 7pm. Nope, no way. I called Zaycon again..and again…and again…and again…no answer or voicemail. I emailed them and told them under no circumstances was I driving back to get the chicken at 7 pm and I wanted a full refund, not a credit.
Around 6:00pm I finally managed to get someone from Zaycon on the phone. Suzanne explained to me that the pick-up date was changed to March 13th from 5:30-6pm and that I could get a credit to my account, not a refund, if the date came and I couldn’t make it.
Grrrrrreat. Throughout the night I received no less than 3 emails from Zaycon with information that contradicted what Suzanne told me.
Judging from the messages on Zaycon’s Facebook page and the emails we received, this was a problem all over the state of Florida that day. Zaycon apologized but insists it wasn’t their fault because they don’t own the processing plant or truck and don’t employ the driver. See, in my book, if I pay you money and you don’t deliver it doesn’t matter where the fault lies, I’m going to be upset and you’d darn well better try to fix it.
That evening I posted on Zaycon’s Facebook page asking if the chicken we were getting on the 13th now was the same chicken that “dropped off the face of the earth” today (Zaycon’s words, not mine!) or if it was going to be freshly processed. Zaycon replied that the chicken would be the same but that it had a 14 day shelf life and would only be 7 days old on the 13th.
The evening of the 12th I received a call from Suzanne reminding me that pick-up was still on for the next day at 5:30pm. The next day my husband left work early to pick-up the chicken. He said pick-up was painless and careful, the people loading the chicken even laid plastic in his trunk before putting the chicken in. **See, I said not everything was going to be negative**
When hubby returned home I started to process the chicken and was generally pleased. The breasts are butterflied so I was breaking each into two pieces and packaging in groups of 3 to freeze.
All was going well until I got to the 4th breast and found this:
Yup, green chicken with a funky skin forming. Would you feed this to your family?
And this:
Yup, chicken covered in fat. I figured this might happen with one or two breasts, but this amount of fat was on every third or fourth breast. (Zaycon’s statement on chicken fat can be found on their website and states: “Chicken breasts typically come in double-lobed pairs (“butterfly”) and will have small attached amounts of fat”) Oh, and the chicken was turning green under this fat.
And then I found 6 of these:
Yup, chicken tenders. Getting a few chicken tenders isn’t an issue except I didn’t order chicken tenders. I assume they were throwin in to make weight but I would have rather had an extra breast or two thrown in.
I emailed Zaycon and explained the situation and attached these photos. I have yet to hear back from them but when I do I’ll post an update.
Will I order from Zaycon again??? Maybe. If they can actually stick to their initial delivery date and time so I know I’m getting fresh chicken I will give them another try. If I order again and the date or time is changed, even once, I’m demanding a refund and I’m out.
**Updated update – 3/20/12 – I received this in my inbox this morning:
**UPDATE!! 3/17/2012 – Today I received an apology from Zaycon, here’s an excerpt:
“We use three major farms due to the fact that we approve of the processes they use
to grow/produce the chicken. While the farms do vary a bit, the product we
receive should be jumbo, boneless, skinless breasts. Many factors play into
the end product. Weather and environment greatly affect the growth of the
chickens. Regardless of all these issues, we strive to offer a large,
delicious breast, ready to be frozen. Considering the volume we do,
occasionally there is a case or two that is not up to our standards. Our
sincere apologies that your case is one of them.”
They then offered me a $25 refund OR credit, which is fair considering I was able to use most of the chicken. I opted for a refund to my card because I’m not convinced I’ll be ordering from them again.***
thisbighappy.wordpress.com 
Thank you for posting your experience. I only found out about Zaycon last evening and started perusing the web to find out more information. It is helpful to hear about the good with the not so good experiences with this company.
I have to say I’ve only ever had one experience with Zaycon and it was to purchase bacon and I had no problems whatsoever. They were friendly, courteous and extremely helpful. They put the box right in my car for me with no hassle and there were no problems with dates changing. The bacon was also excellent (seriously yummy!) and my parents and I both loved it (we split the order).
I only add this because you wrote about it on your old site, I am not part of the Zaycon “private bloggers club.” I just really did have a good experience with them and think that it’s nice for others to see a different take!
I didn’t have a good experience with my first ever Zaycon either and found their customer service not to be very helpful. I purchase Breaded Chicken tenders. I received a hugh amount of breading in the bottom of each sack. I emailed customer service and never got a reply until I posted a negative comment on Face Book (which was somehow taken off within hours) I received an email from Rose saying they never got my emails and could only give me a partial credit if I sent pictures and than she changed her offer in another email to if I donated the chicken to a food bank I could get partial credit than yet another email saying she received the pictures and I would get partial credit She seemed to send emails randomly each saying something diffrent. I really don’t think I will order from them again. The chicken was so very salty not the no additives they promised at all an there was so much breading. AND because they delet any negative postings you really don’t know how their products really are. I did finale get a full credit but I wanted a refund now I am force to order again and take my chances.
I have bought chicken breasts once from Zaycon (read about them on another blog) and have recently placed my 2nd order. I am in Minnesota. I had absolutely no problems with the ordering or pick-up process. Having to be somewhere at 8am wasn’t terribly convenient, but it worked in my schedule that day. I also found that I had to spend the better part of a day trimming fat and preparing the chicken to use my vacuum sealer to package for freezing. They were certainly not the boneless skinless breasts I get from Costco or my regular grocery store. I did think the chicken tasted fine and the price was about $1.20/pound cheaper than at Costco, the cheapest non-sale price I had otherwise found. They also were GINORMOUS – many of the breast halves were about over a pound each. We’ll see how this next order goes. I am hoping to plan a freezer meal cooking day to coincide with the delivery. Ultimately I’ll have to decide whether the low price is worth the time spent picking it up and processing it — kind of a toss up right now.
I have been purchasing Zaycon chicken for about two years now, and every box has been wonderful. I have never experienced any of the issues you describe, wow! I have been very thankful for all of our awesome chicken, recently we hit some hard times financially and I got very creative with our chicken, because it was all we had. I honestly am placing another order today and every time I place an order, I poke around online for reviews. Yours is the only negative one still!
Honestly, I think there are a lot of positive reviews because in 2011 & 2012 Zaycon send hundreds (thousands?) of bloggers free cases of chicken to review. Also, Zaycon has a referral program, and if bloggers put positive things people are more likely to sign-up under them, meaning more free meat.
I’m not one of those bloggers, LOL, so I feel more inclined to be totally honest in my review. I’m not saying the other bloggers weren’t, I’m sure their chicken was just fine and they had no trouble. That wasn’t my experience though 🙂
I certainly think overall the meats are just fine. I also truly, truly believe that what happened in our case isn’t something that will happen again. I also realize that it’s still a better bet than not knowing where your supermarket meat came from or how it was stored (I worked in grocery stores, I know what happens behind the scenes and it’s sometimes scary!)
I still haven’t used the $10 credit they gave me (mentioned in the article) because I just haven’t wanted their ham and bacon and I found a cheaper place for chicken. I still think they could have handled the customer service part a little better when the chicken went missing, but I am glad they were honest in telling me that I’d be receiving the same chicken, just a week late.
I wonder if the green tinge if from arsenic fed to the chicken.
Can you let us in on the cheaper chicken secret? 🙂
I’m going to be picking up our first order of chicken in about a month or so. I sure hope everything goes smoothy
Hi, Meg! Thanks for this post (which I initially found on your old site). I am heading out to pick up my Zaycon order this morning first thing, and I am glad to be aware (even if only now) to keep an eye out for the things you’ve mentioned in this post.
As for how I found your old site- I googled Zaycon to get directions and your link came up on the first page of Google. So, maybe somehow Google is bumping this up for you rather than the negative commentators? Not sure- but just wanted to explain how I found you. I’ll be visiting your new site now!
Hi Meg,
thank you for an honest review! Like Boysberries comment above, I was thinking of ordering my first ever order with ZAYCON and decided to look for reviews. I googled it and your review on the OLD site popped up at the top of the returns. Your new site might be there on the returns, I just never looked past the first three or four. Anyway – just wanted to let you know how I found you, and why others might have been directed to your old site instead of the new one. I may still place an order – haven’t decided yet – but greatly appreciate finding your review and knowing what sort of thing I might need to watch out for (especially poor customer service!). Have a great day!
I picked up my first Zaycon order yesterday. It was the BLSL chicken breast. Pick up was very easy. I was very disappointed when I got home and opened the case. They say there are no hormones but, they are the largest chicken breast I have ever seen! That is always a sign that they are given hormones. I was a chef for many years and I know it is just NOT NATURAL FOR CHICKEN BREAST TO BE THAT LARGE! I just don’t trust their suppliers. I won’t be buying from them again. My families health is more important than saving money!!!
I wanted to leave an updated review as I just picked up my second Zaycon order yesterday.
1. There were no problems at all with picking up my order (other than that I had to get out of bed early to drive to pick it up).
2. The chicken was again the two 1/2 breasts still connected and lots of extra fat and “stuff” to trim off. I ended up with a bit over 10lbs of waste material. (We no longer have a dog, but if we did I’d have reprocessed this for dog treats or something.) I had no use for this, so I threw it out. This means that my cost for the chicken we could actually eat was approximately $2.38/lb.
3. My husband and I planned a freezer cooking day around this purchase. We were able to get 17 meals out of the box, using 5 or 6 recipes. My husband hates touching raw chicken so I did all the trimming, slicing and cutting and this took me 3-4 hours. From start to finish we both worked about 8 hours on the entire process.
4. We live in Minnesota, and the weather was 30-40 degrees yesterday. Because of this I was able to leave the big box of chicken in the trunk for a few hours until my husband brought it in to start the cooking session. We also kept cut/sliced pieces in covered bowls in our porch to keep chilled until ready for them. I note this because someone who lives in a warm area and doesn’t have an enormous fridge/freezer may have some trouble processing all this meat before it gets dodgy on you. As it was, we still felt we were cutting it close!
5. We bought a new Food Saver at Costco this week in preparation for the purchase. (Our old one had died.) I do recommend having one of these or some way to minimize freezer burn. I can say that the chicken from my original purchase last October has done great in the freezer in the Food Saver packages — no freezer burn at all. It has a nice texture and tastes good in recipes.
6. I do think perhaps the other commenter is right about the chicken being exposed to antibiotics because the pieces ARE huge.
So after all of this, I’m yet again undecided whether I’ll purchase again. The actual price of $2.38 is cheaper than the regular Costco prices (about $2.89/lb.), but not as good as I can occasionally find on sale at local stores ($1.89 to $1.99/lb.). It’s a LOT of work to process all this chicken at once. You definitely need a full afternoon or evening to trim and prepare this for freezing. If I do purchase from Zaycon again, I’m not sure I’d do a freezer cooking session. Rather, I’d probably just use my Food Saver to make meal-sized portions of plain chicken for the freezer — which is not quite as much of a time-saver as we’d hoped to accomplish with freezer cooking but still nice to have on hand.
I hope these thoughts are helpful for someone.
I have been debating giving Zaycon a try. Just wanted to say I found this page helpful…it has been hard to find anything negative, which makes ya wonder. With all products, there is going to be at least a few negative remarks because nothing is perfect!
Well we picked up our chicken on April 17th 2013. the breasts ALL had Full skins and some even had bones in them There was a grey slimy matter on them to top it off. It wasn’t cold when I picked it up. They told me to discard it and offered a full refund, but EVERYONE I talked to said their chicken was the same. However, after the lady (Rose) even laughed at my sister on the phone. Tell me what kind of customer service is that. They advertise boneless, skinless breast and that is what it should be not yucky slimy chicken! 😦
I’m sorry! Someone else mentioned Rose in comments, my guess is she’s not the most helpful customer service person 😉 It’s a family-owned company though, they probably can’t/won’t deal with that issue. Do you have a GFS around you? I found their cases of chicken to be better and cheaper, plus the 40lb case is divided into (4) 10 lb bags so it’s easier to process.
I’ve ordered from Zaycon 3 times now & thankfully, I haven’t had any problems. OK, well, one email sent to customer service never got a response, but I found my answer elsewhere. I appreciate seeing the less-than-perfect reviews though; no way any company can be perfect. Meg, what is a GFS?
GFS stands for Gordon Food Service. They mostly provide food to restaurants and caterers but they have store fronts to sell to the public as well. Read my review: http://thisbighappy.com/our-gfs-shopping-experience/ 🙂
Wheater plays a role in the freshness of the chicken. With cold temperatures in Colorado the chicken delivery to us is always fresh even with delays on delivery dates. Usually, this delivery places are organized my “churh people” I may suggest you to get in touch with some of the church members, they are usually friendly and very service oriented. A church member may be able to pick up your order if you are far away from the place of delivery? I had done that for other people in the pass without problems. Again, weather is an issue. You can provide a large cooler with ice to the person picking up your order, in advance. 🙂 Price is unbeatible.
Meg, thanks for your review. I also landed on your old site through a Google search for Zaycon reviews. I’ve been curious about the company and was also skeptical about the lack of negative reviews. I know there are companies that can be hired to scour the Internet and remove negative reviews. I suspect that may be happening. I’m also very skeptical of their use of the word ‘natural’. It means nothing in the food world and can be used freely regardless of what is in or used on food. The size of their chicken breasts is a huge red flag for the use of hormones as Crystal mentioned. After reading your post and the comments, I will not be ordering from Zaycon. That old saying comes to mind…if it sounds too good to be true…
Thanks!
I’m on the fence about buying again from Zaycon and part of it is that I am skeptical of their claims too. They say their beef is grass fed, but I can’t find anything that lists the farms or suppliers they use. They seem very proud of the quality of their food so it seems like they would want to share where it’s coming from. My hunch is that they are simply buying in bulk from a supplier who is providing all the ‘grass fed, no pink slime’ verbiage and the reality is that Zaycon doesn’t know where the meat actually comes from.
Here’s the thing…Zaycon’s beef is grass-fed but it’s switched to grain when it hits 700lbs, which means by the time it reaches weight for slaughter the benefits of being grass-fed are mostly gone. Grass-fed but grain-finished beef is only marginally better than all grain-fed, basically it just means the cow is a few months older when it hits slaughter weight.
Did you know Aldi just started carrying grass-fed beef? I don’t know if it’s grass-finished as when I went to the store yesterday they had sold out. It’s $4.49/lb nationwide.
That’s good to know. I think I’ll pass on Zaycon. Between this and the fact that the owner went off the deep on their FB page when people started asking about pink slime when that story broke, I don’t think I feel good about buying from them.
The boxes that I have received all come from National Beef which is on it’s second recall in about 2 months.. I have posted a reply about it below, and how they have prevented me from commenting on their FB page about it….
I did some googling. Zaycon said none of their beef was affected because it’s 93/7 BUT I just looked at an updated list (http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/national/ground-beef-recall-national-beef-packing-company-recalls-50000-pounds-of-meat) and 93/7 is recalled. If I were you I’d keep pestering Zaycon and get a refund.
It doesn’t list Zaycon as one of the companies that received this affected ground beef, but it is concerning, if it matches the product codes that are listed.
I say better to be safe than sorry. If a code matches, it matches.
Yes, and if it does match they are legally obligated to issue a refund and take the beef back. I am so glad I found this blog before I purchased the chicken. This beef will be the last item I purchase from them. I had already purchased it before I found this blog. I didn’t even consider a recall issue when purchasing from them…Once the truck rolls away they do not have store fronts to walk into…
Glad I found this review. I just heard about Zaycon yesterday and was told it was all natural. After hearing from others about how large the breasts are, I wouldn’t even try it now. Bigger is not better, folks. Not only are these chickens with larger breasts given hormones, but they become so large that they can’t even move and are usually housed in cramped chicken houses where they don’t get to move around anyways. Just because Zaycon knows where they got these chicken breasts from doesn’t mean that you know where they came from. It’s extremely important for me to know where my food comes from. I gave a larger family to feed, but cheap food prices only create higher medical expenses. I’d rather pay 2 or 3 times as much for a local, humanely and safely raised chicken. Thanks for the review and thank you to the commenters who mentioned the giant breasts. You have helped me make my decision NOT to try Zaycon.
Oh, and pretty much all of the major chicken brands state on their packages that they are “all natural”. Sad today that the standards for what is natural is no longer natural at all.
Thanks for all the info. I was planning on placing an order but this info got me thinking. My local Kroger is offering fresh boneless chicken breasts for $1.89/lb. which beats all the prices mentioned.
Also, if anything is wrong they make good on it by refunding your money and replacing the product. I was planning on getting a chest freezer which I will still get but I’ll deal locally. I think I will feel more comfortable. No driving, cancelling and suspect product.
I have used Zaycon once thus far, just found out about them this year. We purchased the Hickory Smoked Bacon and it seems fine to us. I went online looking for complaints about the company because no one has a perfect track record. They are hard to find for sure. I found your old blog first, but clicked the link to end up here.
My hesitation in buying in the BLSL chicken event is the fact that they are large. My pause is that a chicken does not get large on it’s own, it has to be plumped up with hormones. I was wanting to purchase 80lbs our first go around but now I am having second thoughts on it. I do not like doing business with a company that refuses to give or gives a hard time refunding money. Nor do I like receiving something that is not what the company actually says it’s supposed to be. Our area chicken event just came up and I am seriously, probably not going to buy now because of the reviews from this blog. Thank you for being honest.
I order meat from Zaycon foods for 2 years now and just recently have had an interesting experience. On 7/31/13 at around 11 pm. I asked them about this 50,000 lb beef recall from National Beef (the supplier that is always on the box of any ground beef I order) on their Facebook page. A gentleman had commented as well on my post that his boxes matched the USDA inspection code given in the article that indeed it was part of the recall. Zaycon replied to my question on their page and said that “their meat was not affected”, but also said (this is not current). I don’t know what they mean by that, as this article is dated 7/31/13..After seeing their reply, I tried to comment again to let them know the date of the article only to realize that they had deleted the entire post and blocked me from commenting on their page… This disturbs me greatly as all the ground beef I have ordered from Zaycon foods the last 2 years comes from National Beef. If they have nothing to hide why delete the post and then block me? Shouldn’t they be concerned as well? This is worrisome to me and I just wanted to get it out there, as I can imagine most people that have ordered beef through them recently will be concerned and asking questions.
I remember when the pink slime issue surfaced, and whoever was responding on their FB page (the owner maybe?) was really mean and nasty to those who were asking questions.
Thank you for the info Mary. I don’t think asking questions about pink slime should provoke a company to be rude to anyone. Which is what concerns me the most. Transparency in a company does not involve bullying people who are concerned for their health. They have certainly lost my families business, and I will be passing the info along to ALL my referrals.
I posted on Zaycon FB page and made a couple comments on other people’s posts as well. Their 93/7 product code 7004 is the one included in this recall. If your beef is not stamped with this number, then your beef will be okay. If it is stamped with this product code the Zaycon needs to refund your money because they are our “store” of purchase. Whether they want to issue that refund is the story. I also asked them to comment on the recall, as of this post, they have not replied to my comment or other people’s comments…
Honestly, I lost all trust for Zaycon after the pink slime incident. The person who monitors their FB page was NASTY, I remember that. I understand them deleting comments on their page that are mean-spirited, but some of the things they deleted just simply asked “Does your beef contain pink slime?”
I wasn’t aware of Zaycon when the pink slime dilemma was taking place. If I had known all that I know now, I would have never purchased from this company.
Yes Meg, I understand as well! Which is why I was so confused why my comment was deleted after asking if their beef was part of the recall. I didn’t think a simple question would get such a response! They should be putting the word out themselves of a recall and either reassuring that their meat isn’t affected or asking customers to check their chubs of meat. I’m just quite sad about the fact that it seems they are more interested in money than anything else 😦 I see the are doing damage control on their page now, but I also see that William, who had commented on my original post stated he sees that posts are being deleted and it’s a “shame”… Again, I’m blocked and cannot comment on their page. I only wish I had a screenshot of my original conversation but hindsight is always 20/20…
William’s posts have since been deleted. Unbelievable! This is no way to run a company.
So far they have responded to my posts on their FB page and so far it’s still up for readers. I also made a screen shot and saved their response to me regarding a full refund just incase they decide to remove my posts..
Thanks for all of the very informative comments. I’m debating if I should try the 40lb case of chicken breasts or not. After reading all the comments I think I’m got vegetarian HA!
Just got an email about the chicken sale so I Googled “where does Zaycon chicken come from” and it lead me to your post at the .blogspot address. Thanks for sharing an honest review!
Some people mentioned the too large to be natural breasts. It is illegal to give chicken hormones *but* I do believe they were unnaturally helped to grow to their size. Zaycon uses the biggest suppliers for their chicken and the industry standard is to use low dose antibiotics and arsenic in feed to promote growth, for some reason they have the same effect as hormones. Arsenic has been used since the 40s and while there is a voluntary halt of sales of one brand of arsenic for poultry feed, the same company makes a different brand of arsenic (other companies do as well) so it is just business a usual with a pretense of “we are not doing this anymore.”
I asked Zaycon specifically about this but they (also Rose) did not answer my specific questions. She did say the hens get antibiotics when they need it based on the USDA vet’s decision and she also said the broilers are raised indoors. It is legal to include arsenic and antibiotics in the feed and I would imagine a company that is not following the industry standard would announce it loudly and be able to sell their clean birds for more money (with happy buyers!!)
Someone asked on FB if the chicken was antibiotic free and fed GMO free and the representative said yes! I asked about that since they advertise neither and Rose’s response also said they do not guarantee GMO free feed! No reply! It was a blatant lie and I could not believe it was not corrected. People are buying the meat thinking it’s organic or chemical free but if you carefully read their wording, they are not making those claims. It is VERY disturbing.
Thank you for your review Meg! I loved reading the comments and decided against buying from Zaycon Foods, ever. Between hearing of bad customer service, your experience, the no refunds policy, which I have never heard of before from any company, the pink slime!?!? and how large the breasts are from comments here, which is unnatural any which way you try to sell it, I feel relieved to have this knowledge, so glad I found this review!! Thank you ever so much for sharing/posting it.
Wow! Sorry to hear about that horrible experience! I live in WA and heard about zaycon through a homeschooling co-op. I have ordered two different batches of the boneless skinless chicken breasts and had perfect experiences both times. Also I have never been rescheduled for delivery. My last batch which I bought in the spring was fattier than the first but as my husband pointed out that may have been because the chickens were fattier in the winter with what they were fed. I just ordered a double batch
To freeze for the winter. Your review kind of scares me but being at the opposite end of the States from you and seeing as they pull from local suppliers I think maybe we just had higher quality up here.
They might have pulled from local suppliers at one point, but if you email or call them now, they will tell you the hens come from the biggest national suppliers, which are mostly located in the South. None of their suppliers are anywhere near WA. The feed is the same year round. Zaycon also told me the chickens are raised completely indoors (with climate control, I assume.) Rose provided me with all of this information.
PS – I raise layers and broilers and they need twice the feed when it’s cold. Nobody would raise them for meat in the winter unless they were in an indoor heated facility. It would cost too much to make it worth it.
Very good info, thank you!
I wanted to thank you, and all the commenters for sharing their experiences. I performed a Google search on Zaycon Foods Reviews and your old blog came up. I clicked on link to this one and arrived to read all this information. Y’all’s experiences helped me to decide whether I would use this company or not. Thank you!
I really, really just want to thank you for your negative review. I also did a Zaycon review search and found your site. I was so close to buying a case of chicken and after reading everyone’s responses I chose not to. I hope that Zaycon will take everyone’s experiences and thoughts into serious consideration. I will not support a company that isn’t completely honest and won’t back up their own product. I think you have saved me a lot of trouble, I will stick to the grocery store sales at $1.89 lb. Thanks
I came across your old site while doing a Google search for “Zaycon Foods reviews”, and I followed your link to this one to read the newer comments.
Apparently we’ve been luck so far … we’ve ordered Zaycon’s chicken three times now, and their ground beef once, and the only bad experience we’ve had was the second chicken order when they shifted their pick-up time twice. The quality of the chicken has been quite good, tho I admit I’m also slightly concerned about the size. While their web site does say that they explicitly ask for the larger breasts from the processing facilities, I do have to wonder how they get that large.
Your experience sounds awful, FWIW.
We live in the Midwest area and ordered three cases of chicken and out of all that chicken just two breasts looked like they were a little mangled. The pick up was painless and quick. Would order again.
As for the green tinge you had in your order not certain what caused that someone mentioned arsenic but the chickens are organic
I don’t know how the chicken in the Midwest is, but in FL it is definitely not organic. It is all natural, meaning no antibiotic use, but Zaycon doesn’t claim that it’s organic. I’m not sure they could offer organic chicken for $1.79/lb.
As for arsenic, even organically grown chickens can come in contact with it. Arsenic is naturally occurring in our environment and exposure is more common than most people realize.
I just got a new order of chicken and the breasts were, literally, turkey breast size. I can’t prove it but there has to be some growth hormone addition going on there. I cannot tell anyone if that is safe or not, everyone can make their own decision.
My only other comment on our latest pick-up on 10/11/13 is that the breasts were nearly completely frozen when we got them. Not a big deal, just a pain in the butt to process them.
It was very cool of Zaycon to give me a case of chicken to donate to a local family in need 🙂 I picked up and processed the chicken, and will be delivering it to them 10lbs at a time as I have a 2nd freezer and they don’t 🙂
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Just a note on size of chicken breasts. We have raised 4-H meat chickens to show at the county fair. These chickens are not fed any hormones! They may be bio-engineered. We get them as chicks and within 48 days they are so big that at times they cannot stand to eat. They lay down and eat out of the feed tray that way. If you startle them they may suffer a heart attack. About the max days you can keep them before slaughter is less than 50 days. After that it is likely they will have physical problems due to the weight.