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Tyson Foods bets on dark meat chicken
A batch of Tyson Foods chickens
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Kai Ryssdal: On now to chicken. Dark meat, specifically.
It's generally a tough sell here in the United States. Those thighs and drumsticks used to get shipped overseas to Russia and China, mostly. Exports are down, though, so the poultry industry's trying to figure out how to market dark meat to picky American eaters. Marketplace's Adriene Hill reports.
Adriene Hill: Why aren't Americans all that in to thighs and drumsticks? Marcia Pelchat from the Monell Chemical Senses Center says there are a couple reasons.
Marcia Pelchat: In our culture, until very recently, white food was more pure, was more upper-class than brown food.
Seriously. That's a real thing.
Pelchat says there's something else: legs and thighs come with bones and skin.
Pelchat: And did look like part of an animal. And many people find that to be disgusting.
Richard Lobb: If you ask people, what do you like, white meat or dark meat, there's about a 2-1 preference for white meat.
Richard Lobb is with the National Chicken Council.
The poultry math just doesn't add up -- that's too many extra legs! American warehouses are filling up with dark meat. And chicken giant Tyson sees an opportunity marketing the cheaper cuts.
Craig Bacon is a Tyson V.P.
Craig Bacon: It just becomes a strategy that works well for consumers that are looking for value and they're trying to feed their family with maybe fewer dollars to spend.
Bacon says Tyson is also considering turning dark meat into other foods, like chicken sausage and chicken burgers -- food without all those "disgusting" bones.
I'm Adriene Hill for Marketplace.
@Martin Miller, the problem with mentioning what those "nutritional experts" say is that it's scientifically not valid. It's a myth that's been bandied about long enough that many people believe it, but dark meat is not significantly higher in fat, only extremely slightly so, and certainly not enough to make a nutritional difference. This misapprehension is due to the fact that it's juicier, which should actually be a benefit. I'm with Donna (and most chefs) in that I think dark meat has more flavor and little downside.
It disturbs me that people think it's "disgusting" to eat dark meat because it reminds them that it's "part of an animal". Pretending that they're not eating animals is one of the reasons that companies like Tyson® can get away with abusing animals on such a large scale. This story proves that we all need to be closer to the animals that become our food.
Are there any studies done in which people were asked, “which do you like, white meat or dark meat?†and if those answers were classified according to their ethnic background. I’d be interested to find that out. Allow me to apologize if this type of question offend anyone. But when one talks about food, one talks about culture. Therefore, what one likes or dislikes has a lot of cultural bearing, I believe. Moreover, what one thinks delicious could be disgusting for someone else. As a naturalized US citizen who was born and grew up in Japan, I happen to think that toro or fatty tuna is the best thing ever (though I don’t get to eat often since it is very expensive, and not good i.e. healthy if taken too much), but there are many who think raw sashimi eaters are nothing but barbaric. May I say, “Taste is in the tongue of the beholder who has been influenced by his/her own cultural bias.â€
Cornell University's ag school in the thirties (or maybe fifties) in order to encourage the consumption of chicken developed a wonderful bar-be-que sauce for chicken. Ingredients include oil, vinegar, poultry seasoning, salt, an egg. I've seen it called State Fair Chicken. It's popular with volunteer fireman's fundraisers. Very good with dark meat and the recipe makes a lot of sauce.
