Apparently The Capital 'A' In Chick-Fil-A Is There For A Reason

If there's one thing food writers can likely all agree on, it's that eventually typing out uniquely spelled brand names can get exhausting. We're looking at you In-N-Out (despite your delicious Animal Style burger), but I guess you're okay, Burger King.

Chick-fil-A, on the other hand, often trips writers up to type out. However, the chicken-forward fast food brand has explained on its website that the capital A in it's name isn't there just to annoy writers. The capital A actually represents something. For Chick-fil-A, the capitalized ending to its name symbolizes the "top quality", or "Grade A" chicken used in its restaurants. But while Chick-fil-A may pride itself on its high-quailty poultry, the chain has recently made some tweaks to its standards. 

Up until 2024, Chick-fil-A had operated on a policy of only serving 100% antibiotic-free chicken. After all, fast food is a business and sometimes concessions have to be made to keep business booming. Just in the past year, Chick-fil-A has made some arguably necessary but not-so well-received adjustments in regards to its food quality.

In March, Chick-fil-A relaxed its chicken standards by going from a policy of "No Antibiotics Ever" to "No Antibiotics Important to Human Medicine." The not-so catchy policy change came as availability concerns over grade A, antibiotic-free poultry to supply Chick-fil-A's restaurants began to rise.

Under the new policy, the fast food chain's chicken is allowed to have been treated with animal antibiotics only if the chicken or the others around it were to become sick. In addition to relaxing its chicken standards, Chick-fil-A also quietly changed the recipe for its beloved waffle fries. The subtle change, according to the brand, was made in order to help keep its fries crispier for a longer period of time. The new fries now use pea starch in the recipe to achieve the crispiness, but, according to customers, this has caused a notable shift in quality of the fries. People said the waffle fries taste grittier and more dry than before. The pea starch also presents an allergen risk for customers who might be allergic to peas.

So, while Chick-fil-A still proudly touts the capital A for quality in its name, an argument could be made that the letter deserves a slight demotion to B-grade. Customers and Chick-fil-A itself, may want to further analyze what's in a name.