Animal science professor takes the mystery out of meat

When consumers buy meat in the supermarket, they want it to be red, not purple or brown, says Cameron Faustman. “We judge the quality of food on its appearance and have very set ideas about it, based mostly on what is taught to us by our parents. It’s a hard thing to change.”

He says he is often asked if red coloring is added to meat. It is not – and it’s also against the law.

Faustman, a professor of animal science and associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, addressed some of the frequently asked questions about meat in a talk, “Why is there a Bag in My Turkey? – Meat 101.”

The presentation, given Feb. 22 in the Biology/Physics Building, was part of a series on the natural history of food, sponsored by the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and featuring mostly UConn faculty and staff experts.

When meat is first cut, it has a purplish-red color, he said: “If it sits out in the air, it will turn a brighter red, because meat and muscle contain myoglobin, a protein similar to hemoglobin. When it binds oxygen, it becomes nice and red.”

Because consumers like meat that is red, and the red color is due to the presence of oxygen, meat is increasingly being sold in modified-atmosphere packages, Faustman said. It is packed in dishes covered with a thin layer of plastic film, which contain 80 per cent oxygen and 20 per cent carbon dioxide. Most of these packages are not produced in the local supermarket.

Consumers also like their salmon a certain color. “The color of salmon is due to carotenoid,” Faustman said. “A carotenoid you’re familiar with is beta carotene, which is what causes carrots to be orange. If you catch a wild salmon in Alaska, they’ll be very red. They get their color by eating organisms that have the ability to synthesize carotenoids.”

Salmon raised on farms without organisms to synthesize carotenoid will not have the color, he said, noting that the second most expensive element that goes into fish feed for farmed fish are carotenoids to make them pink. “That’s what people want,” he said.

Carotenoids are also used in poultry for coloring the yolk of eggs, and the fat and skin of fowl.

Faustman said meat can be defined as the skeletal muscle of an animal.

“But interestingly, there are other things that we eat that come from animals that are not skeletal-muscle based, and many of these are not particularly liked in our country,” he said. Here, they’re called ‘variety meats.’