Question

1. Either at the dinner table or in a grocery store, look at the poultry and explain why a particular fowl (turkey, chicken) has meat of different colors in it's various parts (legs, thighs, breasts, wings).

a. Did the fowl's normal activities dictate more or less effort of certain body parts?

b. What type of muscle fibers likely dominate the muscles of these various parts? Why?

c. What element of the muscle tissue effects its color?

Answer 1

a) The color of the meat dictates the level of activity in Turkey. The oxygen-storing myoglobin is mainly responsible for pink, red or white coloration of meat of turkey. Muscle that need more of oxygen for their activity store large amount of oxygen brought by the blood. The legs store more oxygen and hence muscles of this part are more red in color as compared to muscles of other parts. Muscle of wings and breast is white in color.

b) Red muscle fiber dominates most part of Turkey’s body. This is so because most of the muscles except the wings and breast are functional and need oxygen that is stored in the myoglobin

c) Muscle fiber that contain myoglobin