Pork: Red or white meat?

What you need to know:

When it became white…
According to culinary tradition, the term white meat refers to meat with a pale colour both before and after cooking. Hence in terms of culinary parlance, pork is classified as white meat. To further drive the point home and reinforce this position, during the 1980s, in an effort to promote the consumption of pork, a campaign was launched by the National Pork Board to promote pork as a lean meat with the catchy slogan, “Pork. The other white meat.” 
However, keep in mind that the campaign’s goal was to increase consumer demand for lower fat cuts of pork.
 

Pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world with per capita consumption here in Uganda, according to Dr Ben Lukuyu, an animal nutritionist, being 3.5 kg. This makes Uganda the largest consumer of pork in Africa, and on a per capita basis, second to China. 
There are various reasons seemingly pork is most Ugandans’ preferred meat. Inter alia, pigs are easy to rear and in many village homesteads, informal pig rearing is common and practical, which means they are abundant. Pigs are prolific breeders and gestation lasts four months and a sow will farrow five to 25 piglets in a litter ,while averaging 10 to 12. 

In my view, what makes pork special and different is that every part of the animal is consumed ranging from the snout, ears, totters, chitterlings (the entrails) and the tail. 
Most major eating establishments offer pork on the menu and the cost for a meal is comparable to that of chicken or beef. However, a kilo of raw pork would retail for around Shs12,000 in an artisan butcher, while the so called special, which would be minus fat, would cost about Shs20,000. 

Whereas in the West, stews are made with boneless meat, Ugandans tend to like meat with bones. 
Pork sausages are widely available on the market but seldom sold in fast food joints which prefer to play it safe and serve beef. The reason for this trend is in order not to offend the Muslims. 

The colour
Despite its worldwide appeal and popularity, most people are ignorant and unsure about the correct classification of this meat. 
In point of fact, many consider pork to be white meat. The main difference between red and white meat’s colour is the amount of myoglobin found in the animal’s muscle. Myoglobin is a protein, muscles that bind oxygen allowing it to be stored and used for energy.  In meat, myoglobin undergoes a chemical reaction and becomes the main pigment that is responsible for changing its colour which becomes a bright red hue when it comes in contact with oxygen. Red meat such as beef, goat, and mutton tend to have a much higher myoglobin content than that of white meat and this is what sets their colours apart. 

Factors
However, different factors may influence meat colour. These range from the animal’s age, species, gender, diet as well as activity level. Studies have shown that exercised muscles have a much higher concentration of myoglobin due to the fact that they need a lot more oxygen to work. In turn, their meat will be darker than otherwise. The optimum surface colour of raw meat from beef, lamb, pork, and veal should be cherry red, dark cherry red, grayish-pink, and pale pink respectively. As for raw poultry, it may vary from bluish-white to yellow. Going by what the scientific community and food authorities viz,the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), pork is classified as red meat and there are two main reasons for this: 

1.Pork has more myoglobin than poultry and fish and as such, it is classified as red meat, even though it does not have a bright red colour.
2.Given that pigs are farm animals, pork is categorised as livestock along with beef, lamb and veal and all livestock are considered red meat.