Thanks to a successful pork marketing campaign, we have a reflex perception of pork as white meat. Technically, pork is still classified as red meat because it is a livestock product. Actually, like beef, ovine, and veal. And we know that all cattle are classified as red meat.
In addition, meat colour determines the amount of myoglobin, which is the protein that accounts for the red colour of the meat and is a major factor in the classification of red and white meat. There’s more myoglobin in red meat than in white. Pork contains less myoglobin than beef, but it contains more than chicken or fish.
Why do we still think pork is white meat?
It started back in the 1980s when the world was studying that red meat could cause cardiovascular disease. Now, several studies refute that, but back then, it was a time bomb for a big business that was cattle breeding.
The farmers did not hesitate and to ensure that the pork sales did not lose ground, they began to classify the pork meat as white. In the United States, the Department of Agriculture even came up with a slogan to support pork “Pork. The other white meat”.
The ministry also signed contracts with advertising agencies “Bozell”, “Jacobs”, “Kenyon & Eckhardt” to create a $7 million national campaign to restore faith in pork. It may seem like a huge advertising budget, but it was not as big as beef or chicken. See, the National Cattle Association spent over $30 million on a beef campaign and $112 million on a chicken commercial. The pork promotion campaign was not expensive, but very effective. The slogan was advertised so intensely that people believed that pork was not red meat.
In the end, that kind of publicity sounded pretty organic and believable. Because when we make pork, it gets white, like a chicken or a turkey. But when we make beef, it’s red meat. Fooling the consumer was easy enough.
The tendency to promote pork as white meat has spread not only in the United States but has also come to us. So, today, most people still think pork is white meat.
Although it should be noted that in cooking pork is considered to be white meat because the way it is cooked is more like chicken than beef. Pork can therefore be classified in various ways. When talking about the beneficial or harmful properties of pork, it is worth pointing out that it is primarily red meat. But when we talk about the secrets of making pork, we have to bear in mind that it needs the approach used for white meat.
