This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on White meat is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
White meat refers to any lighter-colored meat, often contrasted with red meat. White meat or light meat also refers to the lighter-colored meat of poultry as contrasted with "dark meat."
The exact definition of white meat varies by time, place, and culture, but domestic chicken and rabbit are invariably considered "white," while the meat of adult mammals, such as beef, mutton, and horse is invariably considered "red." The meat of young mammals such as veal and milk-fed lamb are considered "white"; while the meat of duck and goose is considered "red,"1 though the demarcation line may be changing. Game is sometimes put in a separate category altogether (French viandes noires 'black meats').2
A newer definition in the United States of America emphasizes not the appearance and strength of taste, but the fat content, making "white meat" synonymous with "lean meat"; traditionally "white" meats such as lamb and veal are reclassified as "red". Even fish and seafood, including fatty and dark-fleshed fishes such as salmon, mackerel, and tuna, are called "white meat".citation needed
Given nutritional concerns, meat producers are eager to have their products considered as "white", and the United States National Pork Board has positioned pork as "the other white meat", alongside poultry; however, meats which are red when raw and turn white on cooking, like pork, are categorized by the United States Department of Agriculture as red meats.3
White and dark poultry meat
Within poultry, there are two types of meats—white and dark. The different colors are based on the different locations and uses of the muscles. Dark meats occur in the legs, which are used to support the weight of the animals while they move. These muscles are designed to develop endurance for long-term use and contain a large amount of myoglobin, allowing the muscle to use oxygen more efficiently for aerobic respiration. In contrast the white meat, generally found within the breasts of the birds, are used for quick bursts of power which requires little of the meat-darkening myoglobin. Note that this holds for ground-based bird like chickens and turkeys – birds which use their chest muscles for sustained flight (such as geese and ducks) have dark meat throughout their bodies.4
References
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989
- ^ Larousse Gastronomique, first edition
- ^ National Agricultural Statistics Service (2005-11-03). "Idaho Red Meat Production Down 40 Percent" (PDF). United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
- ^ Article on the color of turkey and chicken meat
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 23 November 2008, at 08:36.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "White meat".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.