Samples of spilled chicken fat still reside in laboratory freezers in the state of Missouri's facilities.

What harm can 7000 pounds of chicken fat do? Well, if it’s in a french fry factory, the harm would probably be measured in terms of lipid pools in arterial walls, but if that 7000 pounds of liquid fat makes its way into a stream in the middle of Missouri, then what?  That’s what the Water Protection Program of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources wanted to know after a spring 2005 spill from the Royal Canin Pet Food plant. They sampled macroinvertebrates from upstream and downstream of the spill, and found the quality of the downstream life was just marginally lower than upstream.  From the quality of the streambed, they would have expected the downstream location to be a healthier and more robust environment—but at least there wasn’t too much degradation.  There are still some samples of the spilled chicken fat held in laboratory freezers in Missouri’s lab facilities.