What are the mysterious white stripes on chicken?

Did you notice that some pieces of chicken today have white stripes? Scientific studies show that these stripes are not harmful to human health but affect the quality of chicken.

According to Business Insider, the American Chicken Association (NCC) has donated more than $ 250,000 to study the causes of abnormal white stripes appearing on chicken breasts.

What are these mysterious white stripes? Some pieces of chicken breast today have a slightly different form and taste than before. The reason is because of the appearance of white stripes on the meat.

This reduces meat quality when marinated and cooked. It is unclear why the meat has such white stripes. Some experts believe that the demand for human consumption of chickens is high, leading to this situation.

In 2016, the average American consumes 41kg of chicken. This number is three times more than in 1960. To meet this growing demand, the food industry has sought to raise chickens faster and heavier. In 1960, it took 63 days to raise a 1.5kg weighing chicken. Today it takes only 47 days to raise a chicken weighing 2.8kg.

White stripes are not harmful to human health. Researchers estimate that only 5-10% of chicken breasts appear white stripes. However, this abnormality affects meat quality.

They reduce the ability of water to absorb water when marinated. In addition, when cooked meat is also hard and difficult to chew. The US food industry has begun to care about this issue.

Whatever that is, there is a bigger question to be answered . what is "how big and heavy the chickens will be in the future?".