“He was pumped with water!”, “There are definitely no antibiotics?” “It has so much fat in it” … If you have ever heard such statements about poultry meat or were afraid to eat it because of all sorts of common opinions, then we have something for you -what interesting.
Poultry meat plays an important role in the creation of specialized nutrition – for example, baby food. And in almost every home on the table there are a variety of dishes made from poultry meat.
How useful is it? What is inside”? And are the myths about the “harmfulness” of poultry meat justified? Or are they not myths?
We talked about everything in order with Stefanova Isabella Lvovna. She is a Doctor of Technical Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Technology for Children and Special Products of the All-Russian Research Institute of the Poultry Processing Industry.
– Isabella Lvovna, is there your “favorite” among the meat of various birds? Maybe some birds have healthier and more enriched meat than others?
– It’s difficult to talk about a favorite … Each meat has its own characteristics.
For example, we work with broiler, turkey and quail meat. And most of all – with meat of broiler chickens. It is the most studied and common raw material, it is most suitable for the price, it is found in the rations of school and preschool food. Such meat is very tender, it is easily processed. And people are used to it – it is also very often used at home.
In the meat of broilers, the amount of fat is balanced: for example, for baby food there is a formula – 1: 1 (the amount of protein in relation to fat). Chicken breast, for example, has a lot more protein than fat. Because this is the dry part of the meat.
If we talk about turkey meat, it is the most dietary. It contains a sufficient amount of vitamins and little fat.
For example, waterfowl meat, for example, is generally not recommended for baby food. Therefore, we do not use it.
Quail has very good, but it is expensive. The quality of the product is high, the meat is healthy and so tasty! By the way, it is low in fat. And quail meat is also hypoallergenic – therefore it is perfect for people with allergies. But it rather refers to a gourmet product.
– By the way, there is a widespread belief that poultry meat may contain antibiotics. I would like to know more about this. Is it so?
– The fact that the bird is vaccinated and injected with antibiotics is true. But! In the poultry meat itself, they should not be. According to the rules, the bird should not be given antibiotics a week before slaughter. They can only be present if the slaughtering technology is violated. And, unfortunately, sometimes when growing poultry, those that are not on the domestic market can appear.
And somehow it is impossible to feel the presence of any antibiotics while eating – it is impossible.
But in general, antibiotics are extremely rare in meat. You see, large enterprises value their reputation very much and worry not so much about the fine, but about it – the reputation.
I have been on television many times as an expert. So, in five broadcasts, they took five samples of meat from different poultry factories – count 25 samples – and no antibiotics were found in any of them. This already suggests that the frequency of their occurrence is rather rare.
– Is it true that a chicken is pumped with water so that it weighs more and sells more expensive?
– This is, firstly, prohibited: there should be no water in the meat. Although by nature, of course, there is water in poultry meat, because it is cooled.
By the way, do you know where the opinion about pumping with water can come from? If you roast chicken meat, water may come out from there. And people think: he was pumped up. But in fact, young poultry meat has a low water-holding capacity, so water can be released during heat treatment. And this does not mean that the bird was specially pumped with water! And when this is done on purpose, it means that the manufacturer is unscrupulous. But I have been to large enterprises, and there are not even pumping devices there.
– A little more about chicken: why does industrially grown chicken cook faster than farm poultry?
– Mainly because commercial chickens are slaughtered at 42 days of age. By this time, they have not even reached puberty yet.
And farm poultry grows slower and longer because of its nutrition. Plus, she gets slaughtered later. A simple logical conclusion is that young meat is softer, therefore it cooks faster. That’s all.
– By the way, there is an opinion that meat and eggs of chicken of the guinea fowl breed are hypoallergenic products. Is it true?
– I did not work with the guinea fowl, but it really is. This is a rare meat, very few people grow it … The meat is expensive. She, by the way, has a rather tough shell, and the eggs practically do not spoil. The shelf life of the products is very long. And it is believed that meat is hypoallergenic.
– Isabella Lvovna, and if we completely exclude poultry meat from the diet – and indeed any – what will my body receive less? And is it possible to make up for this omission with something else, unclear?
– If you are talking about vegetarianism, then in soy proteins, for example, there are many amino acids.
But there is such a moment: if in southern countries residents can still make up a diet without meat so that the body receives everything it needs, but for us it is very difficult. Replacing animal protein completely – for example, with milk – is impossible, but you can get all the nutrients you need with food supplements, including essential vitamins and minerals.
But with the usual, “average” diet, replacing animal protein is extremely difficult – very costly financially. In addition, you need to know nutritional science in order to create such a diet for yourself.
The material was prepared by Alexandra Goryunova