How unregulated synthetic additives are used to artificially yellow chickens in Georgia
In a sprawling investigation for Radio Tavisupleba, the Georgian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, journalist Giorgi Mgeladze uncovers a widespread food fraud hiding in plain sight in Georgia’s poultry markets.
The story begins in a kitchen in Tbilisi. Nino, a schoolteacher, was preparing dinner when something strange happened in her stockpot. As the water simmered, her supposedly “farm-fresh” chicken began to lose its golden tan, while the broth turned an unnatural shade of yellow.
Earlier that day, Nino had deliberately chosen a hen with yellowish skin. In Georgia, yellow is widely considered the most desirable colour for chicken. Conventional wisdom holds that yellow-skinned birds are healthier, meatier, and raised on natural feed such as corn, which contains carotene, the organic compound responsible for yellow and orange pigmentation in plants and animals.
Poultry dealers, Mgeladze reports, have learned to exploit this belief. Instead of relying on natural feed, they spike chicken feed with synthetic colour-shifting additives. After a few weeks, pale birds take on a convincing yellow hue. What consumers believe to be organic, farm-to-table poultry is often, in reality, chemically altered.
According to Radio Tavisupleba, these artificial colourants are imported from China and are exempt from food-safety regulations in Georgia. When consumed in large quantities, they can be harmful to humans.
To trace the scale of the deception, Mgeladze interviewed major poultry suppliers, grocery managers, and food-security experts. He also went undercover. Posing as a farmer, he attempted to sell pale-skinned chickens to market vendors and shopkeepers, only to be repeatedly turned away. “Nobody buys a white chicken; everyone wants the yellow one,” one vendor told him.
Many dealers even offered pro-tips, advising the reporter to use synthetic additives to achieve that coveted golden glow. “The result is guaranteed. You’ll get exactly this shade,” one shopkeeper promised, gesturing toward the rows of yellow birds lining the stand.
The secret ingredient in these additives is canthaxanthin, a pigment that first gained notoriety in the 1980s. Back then, suntan enthusiasts and bodybuilders would pop canthaxanthin pills to achieve a quick bronze glow for the beach or the stage. Then it turned out that continued usage caused adverse health effects, including liver damage and vision impairment.
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns against ingesting canthaxanthin pills. In both the US and the EU, canthaxanthin is strictly regulated, approved only as a food colorant within tiny, designated limits. In Georgia, however, the use of canthaxanthin or similar pigment-pushing agents remains a regulatory Wild West. Imports of edible colorants have spiked over the last five years, hitting a whopping 124 tons in 2024, the story found.
Some Georgian healthcare providers suspect that yellow chicken may be creating yellow humans. Dr. Maia Butsashvili, a prominent Georgian physician, told RFE/RL that she frequently sees patients complaining that their skin is turning yellow. When hepatitis is ruled out, suspicion typically falls on diet. “As a rule, the continued consumption of carotenes is the cause,’ Butsashvili said. “This condition is called carotenoderma.”
She noted that while the excessive intake of naturally occurring carotenes can trigger the condition, chemically enhanced foods may also be to blame. “Unfortunately, we can’t always trace it back to the specific source,” she said, adding that synthetic carotenes are a more significant health concern than the natural alternatives.
A nation of 3.6 million people, Georgia consumes 77,000 tons of chicken annually. When pressed by RFE/RL, only a handful of the poultry market’s big players admitted to using artificial colorants. Most companies doubled down, insisting their birds are additive-free and naturally golden. However, with no proper regulations or lab facilities in place to fact-check the claims, Georgian consumers are forced to simply take their word for it.
This original source article ‘როგორ ღებავენ ქათმებს ყვითლად — ჟურნალისტური გამოძიება’ was published in Georgian in Radio Tavisupleba (the Georgian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) on August 13, 2025.
It is available here.
Radio Tavisupleba is the Georgian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an independent international news organisation. Based in Tbilisi and Prague, it provides digital, radio and multimedia journalism in Georgian and Russian, offering fact-based reporting, analysis and cultural programming in a highly polarized media landscape.
Summary by GL
