It turns out that many members of Gen Z have only just discovered what meat is made from.

While this might sound like a joke, many members of this generation (born between the mid-to-late 90s and early 2010s) have taken to Twitter to express their shock that meat is... the muscle tissue of dead animals.

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Needless to say, this group of confused Gen Zs went viral on Twitter because, despite being able to read and write, they had absolutely no knowledge of this basic fact of life.

It all began when one person tweeted: "The meat is the muscle on the chicken? We be eating chicken muscle? Not just meat? [sic]"

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A second confused person added: "HUH? We eating chicken muscle???? [sic]"

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A third explained: "A gen-z at work WHO GREW UP IN THE RURAL SOUTH recently confessed that he just realized that the drumettes you get when you order chicken wings are part of the wing and not legs from very small chickens."

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Gen Z's lack of understanding about what meat is was, unsurprisingly, a source of concern for many older Twitter users.

One wrote: "these people are old enough to drive, vote, drink, and will some day be in charge of nursing homes. That very thought keeps me awake at night [sic]."

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A second added: "Gen Z really seems to struggle with forming thoughts that aren't directed by their internet usage. It's like, 'well, nobody is follow on tiktok ever talked about it so I never even considered it'. Really, not even when you were eating it?"

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A third joked: "Some days I feel like I'm some Gandalfian wandering wizard when I strike up conversations about ordinary things with younger people anymore."

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Meanwhile, a fourth simply pointed out that it was a reflection of how distant people are from food production.

They wrote: "This is what happens when, for better or worse, generations get far enough removed from any personal involvement in food production."

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However, while these tweets don't paint the greatest impression of Gen Z's general knowledge levels, their eating preferences are, admittedly, very plant-based.

A Produce Blue Book report found that 65% of Gen Z want to adopt a "plant-forward" diet and 79% are going completely meatless at least once a week.

Featured image credit: Pexels / Lukas

Some people are only just discovering what meat is made out of