Quote:
Originally Posted by canadiangirl  red & white when they should be looking for purple and yellow.Luc_H
Please show me what that means  . I am so sick of buying meat that looks good only to get a grizzly piece of no taste. 
canadiangirl   |
Let me explain that comment at least but you need to read some material. Fresh meat is purple in colour not bright red. Meat that is fresh means freshly cut off the carcass and is purple because it has not been exposed to air for a long time.
see:
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/meatscience/column/color.htm
Yellow refers to fat.
cattle is either slaughtered very young to prevent their fat to becoming yellow. Cattle are fed corn also to prevent this from happening. Cows are herbivores not rodents and cannot digest corn. That is why they are fed digestive enzyme to help their stomach, stomach the corn and antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick by lack of eating what they are supposed to eat (i.e. grass). Grass fed cattle have yellow fat because its an indication that they consumed coloured plant (i.e. beta carotene - orange). Meat that has yellow fat means that the animal at least ate some real food!!
An excellent book on this subject is The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
Here is a link:
Beef Marketing Alternatives
excerpt that kinda explains how cattleman interpret what the public thinks and wants:
Young slaughter age. The most important issue related to tenderness of beef is the age of the animal at slaughter. Plan to have pasture-finished cattle ready for slaughter at 16-22 months of age. One "problem" associated with PFB that may be solved by slaughtering before 18 months is yellow fat. This is a problem due to public perception that beef fat should be white; it is not a true quality issue. The yellow color simply indicates a higher level of beta-carotene (precursor to vitamin A) in the fat of animals finished on forage. "Yellow fat on poultry and beef, extremely orange egg yolks and naturally yellow butter reflect high levels of chlorophyll in the diet and low levels of saturated fat." (Salatin, 1995) A direct marketer who educates customers about yellow fat might turn it into an asset indicating a natural, nutritious food. In any case, the consensus among producers seems to be that if animals are slaughtered within the 18-month age range, fat will not appear yellow.
Luc H