Factors Affecting Turkey Meat Color

INTRODUCTION COLOR in poulty products strongly influences consumer acceptance. Two closely related heme pigments, myoglobin and hemoglobin, make uncooked poultry flesh pink to red. Consumers often object to variation from that normal appearance of uncooked meat or from the normal white to golden-brown of cooked turkey. Pool (1956) reported that turkey meat acquired a pink color when oven roasted in an uncovered container. He concluded this discoloration resulted from small amounts of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide (frequently found in oven atmosphere) combining with heme pigments of the bird. Froning and Hartung (1967) studied effects of age, sex and strain on color and texture of turkey meat, reporting that Gardner L values of uncooked and cooked meat decreased (meat darkened) with age of the bird. (Gardner L refers to light reflectance, aL to redness and bL to yellowness.) They found that uncooked dark meat had significantly more redness (higher aL…