Meat

Meat is animal tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistoric times. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals including chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, and cattle, starting around 11,000 years ago. Since then, selective breeding has enabled farmers to produce meat with the qualities desired by producers and consumers.

For other uses, see Meat (disambiguation).

Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat. Its quality is affected by many factors, including the genetics and nutritional status of the animal involved. It is edible raw, but is normally eaten cooked, such as by stewing or roasting, or processed, such as by smoking or salting. Bacteria and fungi decompose and spoil unprocessed meat within hours or days.

The consumption of meat, especially red and processed meat, causes health effects including increased risks of cancer, coronary heart disease, and diabetes. Meat production is a major contributor to environmental issues including global warming, pollution, and biodiversity loss, at every scale from local to global.

Meat is important to economies and cultures around the world. Some people choose not to eat meat (vegetarians) for reasons such as ethics, environmental effects, health concerns, or religious dietary rules.

A shoulder of lamb

A Hereford bull, a breed of beef cattle

Dog meat on sale, South Korea

Supermarket meat, North America

Composition

Biochemical

The biochemical composition of meat varies in complex ways depending on the species, breed, sex, age, plane of nutrition, training and exercise of the animal, as well as on the anatomical location of the musculature involved.^[23] Even between animals of the same litter and sex there are considerable differences in such parameters as the percentage of intramuscular fat.^[24]

Adult mammalian muscle consists of roughly 75 percent water, 19 percent protein, 2.5 percent intramuscular fat, 1.2 percent carbohydrates and 2.3 percent other soluble substances. These include organic compounds, especially amino acids, and inorganic substances such as minerals.^[25] Muscle proteins are either soluble in water (sarcoplasmic proteins, about 11.5 percent of total muscle mass) or in concentrated salt solutions (myofibrillar proteins, about 5.5 percent of mass).^[25] There are several hundred sarcoplasmic proteins.^[25] Most of them – the glycolytic enzymes – are involved in glycolysis, the conversion of sugars into high-energy molecules, especially adenosine triphosphate (ATP).^[25] The two most abundant myofibrillar proteins, myosin and actin,^[25] form the muscle's overall structure and enable it to deliver power, consuming ATP in the process. The remaining protein mass includes connective tissue (collagen and elastin).^[25] Fat in meat can be either adipose tissue, used by the animal to store energy and consisting of "true fats" (esters of glycerol with fatty acids),^[26] or intramuscular fat, which contains phospholipids and cholesterol.^[26]

Meat can be broadly classified as "red" or "white" depending on the concentration of myoglobin in muscle fiber. When myoglobin is exposed to oxygen, reddish oxymyoglobin develops, making myoglobin-rich meat appear red. The redness of meat depends on species, animal age, and fiber type: Red meat contains more narrow muscle fibers that tend to operate over long periods without rest,^[27] while white meat contains more broad fibers that tend to work in short fast bursts, such as the brief flight of the chicken.^[27] The meat of adult mammals such as cows, sheep, and horses is considered red, while chicken and turkey breast meat is considered white.^[28]

World production of meat, main items^[40]

World production of main meat items, main producers (2019)^[40]

Consumption

Historical

A bioarchaeological (specifically, isotopic analysis) study of early medieval England found, based on the funerary record, that high-meat protein diets were extremely rare, and that (contrary to previously held assumptions) elites did not consume more meat than non-elites, and men did not consume more meat than women.^[51]

In the nineteenth century, meat consumption in Britain was the highest in Europe, exceeded only by that in British colonies. In the 1830s consumption per head in Britain was about 34 kilograms (75 lb) a year, rising to 59 kilograms (130 lb) in 1912. In 1904, laborers consumed 39 kilograms (87 lb) a year while aristocrats ate 140 kilograms (300 lb). There were some 43,000 butcher's shops in Britain in 1910, with "possibly more money invested in the meat industry than in any other British business" except finance.^[52] The US was a meat importing country by 1926.^[52]

Truncated lifespan as a result of intensive breeding allows more meat to be produced from fewer animals. The world cattle population was about 600 million in 1929, with 700 million sheep and goats and 300 million pigs.^[52]

Lawrie, R.A.; Ledward, D. A. (2006). Lawrie's meat science (7th ed.). Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing. 978-1-84569-159-2.

ISBN

This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023, FAO, FAO.

American Meat Science Association website

Archived October 5, 2018, at the Wayback Machine

IARC Monographs Q&A

Archived November 23, 2018, at the Wayback Machine