American food and beverage company Campbell’s, most famous for its canned soups, has denied the remarks made by a fired executive, Martin Bally, who described the soup as “bioengineered meat”.
The released year-old audio capturing Bally, VP in Campbell’s Information Technology department, records him saying that he doesn’t want to “eat chicken that came from a 3D printer.” He also describes the soup as “bioengineered meat” and, according to a lawsuit filed by a former employee, has previously called Campbell's "highly process[ed] food" for "poor people."
The lawsuit was filed by Robert Garza, who was hired by Campbell's as a cybersecurity analyst in September 2024. According to the filing, Garza met with Bally in November 2024 to discuss his salary.
Garza alleges that during the meeting, Bally also made “several racist comments”, including about Indian workers, along with calling Campbell’s food highly processed.
Garza then reported the incident to his manager and wanted to raise it with the HR team, but received no direction, and was later “abruptly terminated”. The lawsuit attributes the termination to the manager and Bally.
The recorded video was released as part of the lawsuit. Garza says that he suffered multiple damages, including stress, humiliation, embarrassment, and mental anguish, as well as economic and non-economic damages.
Following the events, Campbell’s released a few statements. On November 25th, they claimed that their “soup contains real chicken meat, from real farms” and explained that the meat comes from long-trusted, USDA approved US suppliers and meets their high quality standards.
They also added that they don’t allow antibiotics to be used by their chicken suppliers and called Bally’s allegations “absurd”:
“A recent video contained false comments about our ingredients. The comments heard on the recording about our food are not only inaccurate, they are absurd. 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.”
Campbell’s added that it doesn’t use 3D-printed chicken, lab-grown chicken, or any form of artificial or bioengineered meat in its soups.
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On November 26th, the company addressed the full situation in more detail, saying that they were never informed about the existence of an audio recording.
“After a review, we believe the voice on the recording is in fact Martin Bally. The comments were vulgar, offensive and false, and we apologize for the hurt they have caused. This behavior does not reflect our values and the culture of our company, and we will not tolerate that kind of language under any circumstances. As of November 25th, Mr. Bally is no longer employed by the company.”
On Monday, James Uthmeier, the Attorney General of Florida, posted on X that the Consumer Protection Division is launching an investigation into the quality of Campbell’s meat.
Lab-grown food was once thought of as the realm of the future, but it’s becoming a reality. KFC, for instance, partnered with the Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions in 2020 to develop 3D-printed chicken nuggets.
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