NEW YORK — Butterball apparently has big fat mystery on its hands: The company says it doesn’t know why some of its turkeys wouldn’t plump up in time for Thanksgiving this year.
CEO Rod Brenneman said that it’s the first time it has happened and that the company is investigating what went wrong. Butterball had announced that it will have a limited supply of large, fresh turkeys that are 16 pounds or heavier for the holidays.
“It’s a really good question. We don’t have an answer yet,” Brenneman said when asked about the cause. But he noted that turkeys are “biological creatures” subject to a variety of factors.
“For whatever reason, they just didn’t gain quite as well this year,” he said.