Researcher turns whole turkey into white meat

The scientist took on the dark-to-white-meat challenge as his PhD project at the University of Georgia, under the guidance of Dr Dan Fletcher, considered one of the world’s foremost poultry researchers.

Betti says that turkey meat can lose its dark side and that the process is actually quite simple. Dark meat is minced and placed on ice. Water is added and the meat is put through several extraction processes to separate and remove layers of the two ingredients that make dark meat look and taste different than white and adding the colour and fat – myoglobin.

What’s left looks like a white meat milkshake, described by Betti as a “protein concentrate.” The paste can be used as a base to create foods that have chicken as their main ingredient, such as nuggets.

Betti expects to spend another three years refining the final product before taking it to market. “Right now much of the dark meat produced in North America is exported to the Middle East and Russia, because there is no consumer demand for it here. Consumers associate dark meat with fat and high cholesterol and white meat with leanness and health.”

Dr Mirko Betti (see page 22)