Brits love chicken - and figures suggest we wolf down more than 2.2 million every day.

But, worryingly, agriculture is stretched as a result of our extreme consumption, Mirror Online reports.

Our demand for poultry is reportedly having a telling effect on the quality of our chicken.

According to studies, chicken isn't quite as 'good' for us as it once was, despite it being widely heralded as better for us than beef, lamb or pork.

Compassion in World Farming has released a video about 'white striping' in chicken.

These strands of fat appear due to the conditions the birds are kept in and develop in factory farms.

Traditionally, chicken breasts are plump, tender, and have a small amount of fat running along the sides – but not strains cutting through the fillets.

The striping is down to the way chickens are raised in intensive farming.

Farmers have to produce the birds on a mass scale, so they do everything to make their animals grow bigger, and more quickly.

And chickens are fattier as a result.

A study last year by the University of Arkansas and Texas A&M concluded that “the severity of white striping has increased in recent years."

Scientists found white striping present in 96 per cent of the birds they tested (285 in total).

This white striping doesn't just mean more fat, but it also "negatively impacts meat quality," according to researchers.

Apparently the meat isn't as tender and doesn't absorb marinades as well.

It's worth mentioning that the study above was in the US – where farming is not usually as high quality as the UK and Europe.

But it happens in the UK too.

Also, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council told BuzzFeed that white striping only affects a “small percentage of chicken meat” and “does not create any health or food safety concerns for people and the welfare of the chicken itself is not negatively impacted.”

So look out for white striping and avoid it if you can.

But don't throw your meat away if it's there.