That honestly sucks, I hope you haven't had any more negative experiences like that since then (at Subway or elsewhere), nowadays I take home cooking over everything, it's a lot of work tho.
I am pretty sure that the test was badly done and the whole 50% thing was the result of shitty sampling. Yes, they have soy protein additives but fake chicken is more expensive than real chicken and the tests were never confirmed by a second lab.
A lot of fast food does end up having meat that is significantly lower than 100% meat just by doing seasoning and preservatives. Taco Bell for example has a crazy amount spices and filler ratio which is partially due to the fact that meat volume is reduced as the moisture is cooked out. They are still excessive though.
Subway gets picked on the most both due to how it has the most locations (or did at one point) and it brags about the food quality. Nobody picks on KFC for how fatty their fried chicken is because we know it is fatty. Subway played themselves.
I pick on KFC plenty. If you order at the wrong time you will get hours old chicken at lots of locations, and it will be soggy and sad and basically just congeal into a lump of goopy breading.
When the chicken is fresh it is top tier, but even at peak dinner time I end up getting soggy chicken half the time.
Really? I can understand that. IDK how different Subway is in America (or any other country for that matter) but in here I don't see any issue with their bread, or at least I haven't had any so far.
As someone who likes a good subway every once in a while, there are definitely a few things you should refrain from ordering. Chicken comes to mind.
Also, the recipe for bread they use in the US is different from many other countries because in those other countries the American version can't legally be called bread. (I think it had to do with the sugar content)
Subway also has a history of being pretty hostile towards anyone who speaks against their "healthy fast food" narrative. I mentioned chicken above, well they sued CBC for reporting on a study that found Subway chicken was only about 50% chicken DNA, with the rest being soy protein.
They were also sued a couple years back by someone claiming their tuna wasn't really tuna, but that case was dismissed by the plaintiff, citing pregnancy complications making it difficult to continue.
I think me not eating meat anymore has a lot to do with the way I perceive Subway, I remember trying their meatball sandwich a couple of times and not liking it, it tasted weird to me but I know people who liked it so I didn't pay much attention to it. Nowadays I just order a sandwich stuffed with as many vegetables as possible, or their soy protein one.
I'm not in the US so chances are by going to Subway we both would have different experiences, years ago I worked near a Subway so I stopped by all the time, their salami sandwich was maybe the one I ordered the most, it was OK.