Subway says it plans to sue the CBC over a Marketplace story claiming about half of the chicken in the popular restaurant chain’s chicken sandwiches is soy filler.

“We have issued a notice of action in Canada against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that asks for $210 million in damages over allegations made by its program, Marketplace, that are defamatory and absolutely false,” said Subway.

“Despite our efforts to share the facts with the CBC about the high quality of our chicken and to express our strong objections to their inaccurate claims, they have not issued a retraction, as we requested. Serving high-quality food to our customers is our top priority, and we are committed to seeing that this factually incorrect report is corrected.”

CBC confirmed receiving the notice of action, but said it has not been served with a statement of claim.

(A notice of action indicates an intention to sue, while filing a statement of claim amounts to suing.)

“If that happens, we intend to file a statement of defence,” said CBC public affairs manager Emma Bédard to the Star. “We believe our journalism to be sound and there is no evidence that we’ve seen that would lead us to change our position.”

Said Bédard: “It’s important to clarify that CBC has never made the claim that Subway alleges in their latest statement.

“CBC Marketplace reported that DNA test results show very high levels of soy DNA in Subway’s chicken products, in comparison to the other fast food chicken samples that were also tested.”

The saga began after the CBC’s Marketplace, a consumer watchdog, did a DNA analysis in late February of the popular fast food chains’ chicken and found Subway’s had “only about half chicken DNA.”

Marketplace looked at Subway’s Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich and its Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki (chicken strips).

Subway’s results were so unusual, said Marketplace, the researchers repeated the tests with new chicken and found the same results.

The sandwich chain responded to Marketplace’s claims with a statement on Mar. 1, announcing it had two independent labs test its chicken, and the tests found “the Canadian chicken products tested had only trace amounts of soy, contradicting the accusations made” by the CBC.

It called the public broadcaster’s results “false and misleading” and demanded a retraction and apology.

Subway took out a full page ad in The Globe and Mail newspaper that read, “Saying our chicken is only 50 per cent chicken is 100 per cent wrong.”

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Bédard says CBC reached out to Subway in early February, and the chain chose not to provide answers beyond saying that the results were “false.”

The tests administered for CBC were done by independent and credible experts, she added.

The tests recently circulated by Subway to the media after the episode of Marketplace aired do not address the DNA make-up of its chicken products, Bédard said. She added that Subway has yet to provide any explanation for the DNA test results obtained by the CBC.