Dr. Christine Alvarado and Dr. Casey Owens the Moms at the Poultry Counter |
I have recently seen a few social media posts and had a few
questions about white striping in chicken breasts. And honestly, I don’t know
as much about chicken as I would like to, so I didn’t have very thorough
answers to people’s questions.
So, as a scientist,
what do I do when I don’t know something? I ask questions and do a little
research.
As a mom, when I don’t know something? I ask my friends.
Luckily, I have some really smart friends in Poultry Science who know more
about chicken than I know about beef.
Dr. Casey Owens and Dr. Christine Alvarado (pics and bios
below) are moms and Poultry Scientists who have been conducting research on the
white striping that we sometimes see in chicken breasts. I asked them to write
a few words for my blog about it.
So today we hear from The Moms at the Poultry Counter!
White striping in
chicken? What is that and is it harmful? What you need to know from Scientist
Moms…..
Recently, I am sure many of you have been hearing about
white striping in chicken breast meat – everything from ‘its fine’ to ‘don’t
eat the chicken’. So, we just thought we should clarify some information.
We have conducted scientific research in
this particular area and this research may be misrepresented and/or
misinterpreted in some cases by the general public. Many of our studies have
been written for an audience consisting of scientists and industry in efforts
to identify these quality conditions and improve them.
We as moms and scientists want to clarify that white
striping in chicken breast meat is absolutely safe to eat – there is no food
safety concern. We also wanted to make sure that as moms and scientists, everyone
knows we feed chicken breast meat to our own children knowing we have the
highest safety and quality standards in the USA.
Now on to the
science….. White striping is a quality
factor in chicken breast meat caused by deposits of fat in the muscle
during the bird’s growth and development (i.e., the bird’s life). In fact, it
is similar to marbling
in red meat. Consequently, protein levels decrease slightly as fat
increases. However, white striping can
occur in meat in varying quantities (also observed visually). Meat that we consider to be mild or moderate
may have striping that appears as very fines lines. It isn’t always noticeable or necessarily
detracting from its appearance. This level has been observed in chickens for
many years; it just isn’t always noticeable.
Normal chicken breast (left) vs. a breast with white striping (right) |
The striping we refer to as severe can be more abundant and
prominent. In more recent years, there
has been more meat with increased severity of white striping and this is the
potential quality issue. With that said, fat is present in any chicken breast
meat in low amounts anyway so while there may be a slightly higher fat content
in white striped breast fillets when compared to those that aren’t white
striped, the overall fat content is still low. Some references in social
media are citing that white striping can increase fat by 224% and we know that
sound like a lot, but when starting fat content is only 0.5%, that doesn’t
result in much of an increase at all. Other studies state a much lower increase
in fat (224% vs 84%); regardless, even a 100% increase would only double the
amount (e.g., 0.5 to 1%), still resulting in low fat content. The same is
true for protein though the protein levels generally decrease as white striping
increases, but again in very small quantities (2-3% decrease).
So what has changed?
Why are we seeing more white striping in chicken meat? Chickens used in the
meat industry are young, but they are now generally growing faster and bigger
due to better management, nutrition, animal welfare, and genetics. Therefore,
their growth and development is also changing and this can lead to more fat
deposits in the meat. By raising bigger
birds, it means that fewer birds can be raised for the same amount of meat and
at the same costs, thereby a relatively inexpensive, quality protein can be
provided for people to eat.
Another question from consumers is why don’t we just slow
the growth down? Slower
growing birds are less sustainable and will result in more birds being
raised to produce the same amount of meat.
Also slow growing birds and organic birds have white striping as
well. So researchers are working on ways
to reduce white striping through different feeds and ways of breeding the
chickens.
Our research studies use models to create white striping in the
chickens, so we can study it better.
These studies are published to help the industry with improving quality
and not to be misinterpreted that this meat is not safe or wholesome. So,
when you read information about white striping in chicken, don’t forget that we are moms and we have confidence that our industry produces a safe and high
quality product for consumers.
Dr. Christine
Alvarado earned her B.S. in Biomedical Science ('93) and MS and Ph.D. (2001) in
Food Science from Texas A&M University. She has been on faculty at Virginia
Tech, Texas Tech and is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Poultry
Science at Texas A&M University. Dr. Alvarado’s applied national and international research program
primarily focuses on improving
meat quality and process efficiency for poultry processors and determining functionality
of non-meat ingredients used in further processed poultry. Dr. Alvarado also
conducts research in food safety with an emphasis on working with processors to
evaluate current and new innovative antimicrobial applications for efficacy and
cost effectiveness.
Dr. Alvarado is a Novus International Teaching award recipient and
currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in poultry processing,
poultry further processing, an undergraduate capstone poultry science systems
course, and a graduate seminar. Dr Alvarado has 5 children, loves to teach
students to be agricultural advocates, and loves to help empower students to be
better leaders in society.
Dr. Casey Owens
received her B.S. degree in Poultry Science and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
Food Science and Technology from Texas A&M University in 1994, 1996, and
1999, respectively. She joined the faculty of the Department of Poultry
Science at the University of Arkansas in 2000 and she is currently an Associate
Professor and holds the Novus International Professorship of Poultry
Science. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of
Food Science. Her research has a strong emphasis on evaluating production
and processing factors affecting poultry meat quality including tenderness,
water holding capacity, color and sensory attributes. Her recent research
has focused on quality of meat from broilers in big bird market programs
including muscle myopathies such as white striping and woody breast, and issues
with meat texture. Past research has included meat tenderness and methods
for assessing meat tenderness with the development of the Meullenet Owens Razor
Shear, pale, soft, exudative poultry meat, and the use of marination in poultry
meat for improved meat quality. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed
articles, book chapters, and popular press articles as well as over 100
research abstracts. She has given over 45 invited presentations nationally and
internationally. She is a Subject Editor for Poultry Science in the Processing
and Products section. In addition to her research, Dr. Owens teaches Egg and
Meat Technology and Value Added Muscle Foods at the undergraduate and graduate
levels for students in Poultry Science, Food Science, and Animal Science. She
also teaches industry workshops related meat and egg processing and further
processing. She serves as an undergraduate academic advisor, and Dr. Owens has
directed the research of numerous Ph.D. and M.S. graduate students in addition
to undergraduate research. Dr. Owens has two children.
Thank you for posting this. Does white striping affect the toughness of the meat?
ReplyDeleteDr. Owens is traveling today, but I asked her your question via text message. She said that the white striping does not really affect the tenderness of the meat.
DeleteThanks for the question.
Thank you for the information, the other question I was thinking about was this new problem worth "woody breasts"
ReplyDeleteHi. Dr. Owens sent me a response for your question weeks ago, but I've been out of the office and haven't been able to get it posted. Here is her response:
DeleteHi. Yes woody breast is another quality issue where breast meat can have higher collagen levels. It can result in changes in the texture usually in the upper most part of the fillet. These fillets can be sorted or graded out (at the processing plant) so that the highest quality product is sold to consumers.
So unlike marbling in red meat, white striping is not something that is desired or prized, right? Wagyu beef is severely marbled and extremely prized even though I don't care for it.
ReplyDeleteSean. Right. People don't expect to see the white striping, so sometimes they discriminate against it. Chicken farmers do not select their chickens to have it like in the beef industry.
DeleteWhere might I be able to get chicken without white stripes?
ReplyDeleteWhat do fattening chicken do the eggs???
ReplyDeleteShirley, Thanks for the question. Generally the chickens bred for meat and the chickens bred for egg production are two completely different types of birds. Just like dairy cattle and beef cattle.
DeleteSo, growing bigger meat chickens won't have an effect on the eggs.