Merko Betti This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. www.inklingmagazine.com

   www.inklingmagazine.com/articl - [Cached]

   Published on: 10/31/2007   Last Visited: 10/31/2007

   So Merko Betti, a food scientist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, has come up with a way to turn dark meat to white.
   
   How, you ask? In this day of food technology, you might have assumed that Betti turned first to genetics. With the chicken genome sequenced and published, he could have searched for the avian genes that make dark meat dark - those responsible for the levels of muscle fat and red-coloured myoglobin. Myoglobin is a protein stored in muscles that delivers oxygen to cells during taxing aerobic exercise. Because ground-based birds such as turkeys only fly in short bursts, their breast or pectoral muscles don't need myoglobin, hence the pure white meat. Genetic engineering and genome-directed breeding programs likely hold high promise for the all-white-bird, especially if it doesn't need to move around at all. And indeed, Betti has plans to exploit available DNA information, but not quite yet.
   
   Perhaps then Betti discovered some brilliantly white-meated mutant and employed a sophisticated breeding program to produce a superior (and patented) line of whiter-than-white birds? He could even have named them Allbreast(TM).
   
   But no. Betti kept it simple. He took a heap of dark meat, ground it down, put it on ice, added water and whirled it through several extraction steps to remove the fat and myoglobin. In the end, he had a white protein concentrate, ready to be formed as nuggets, patties, fingers, maybe even re-shaped into drumsticks and re-stuck on the bird.

2. 2. Inkling Magazine - I’m Dreaming of An All White Meat Christmas

   www.inklingmagazine.com/articl - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/22/2007   Last Visited: 10/31/2007

   So Merko Betti, a food scientist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, has come up with a way to turn dark meat to white.
   
   How, you ask? In this day of food technology, you might have assumed that Betti turned first to genetics. With the chicken genome sequenced and published, he could have searched for the avian genes that make dark meat dark - those responsible for the levels of muscle fat and red-coloured myoglobin. Myoglobin is a protein stored in muscles that delivers oxygen to cells during taxing aerobic exercise. Because ground-based birds such as turkeys only fly in short bursts, their breast or pectoral muscles don't need myoglobin, hence the pure white meat. Genetic engineering and genome-directed breeding programs likely hold high promise for the all-white-bird, especially if it doesn't need to move around at all. And indeed, Betti has plans to exploit available DNA information, but not quite yet.
   
   Perhaps then Betti discovered some brilliantly white-meated mutant and employed a sophisticated breeding program to produce a superior (and patented) line of whiter-than-white birds? He could even have named them Allbreast(TM).
   
   But no. Betti kept it simple. He took a heap of dark meat, ground it down, put it on ice, added water and whirled it through several extraction steps to remove the fat and myoglobin. In the end, he had a white protein concentrate, ready to be formed as nuggets, patties, fingers, maybe even re-shaped into drumsticks and re-stuck on the bird.