Discolored (green) Meat

[MsRebekah]

Hi! This is my first post here. We have been raising meat chickens without ever having an issue. In fact the meat is always juicy and soooooo delicious! But last night I cooked up a chicken and when cutting into it, the meat looked darker than it should have been in the lower portion of the breast meat, and when reaching the sternum, there was an obviously green patch of tissue there. Sadly we feld the bird should not be eaten and ate cereal :-( I have never seen that in all my life of cooking chickens and wonder if anyone else has? Does anyone know what causes it? Any information would be greatly appreciated as I don't want that to happen again! THX

 

[MillersFarm]

How old were they when you processed them? I've seen some green on older BB turkeys when processing them, wasn't harmful or anything to eat, Could be Bruising..

 

[ShannonR]

Hi! This is my first post here. We have been raising meat chickens without ever having an issue. In fact the meat is always juicy and soooooo delicious! But last night I cooked up a chicken and when cutting into it, the meat looked darker than it should have been in the lower portion of the breast meat, and when reaching the sternum, there was an obviously green patch of tissue there. Sadly we feld the bird should not be eaten and ate cereal :-( I have never seen that in all my life of cooking chickens and wonder if anyone else has? Does anyone know what causes it? Any information would be greatly appreciated as I don't want that to happen again! THX

Pretty sure it was just a bruise. Won't hurt anyone, but I do like to cut the green meat out of mine.

 

[MsRebekah]

How old were they when you processed them? I've seen some green on older BB turkeys when processing them, wasn't harmful or anything to eat, Could be Bruising..

they were about 3 months old cornish

 

[MillersFarm]

Most likely bruised then, Nothing harmful to eat.

 

[annageckos]

Depending on where the spot was and what it looked like I've heard of cornish X that develop dead tissue in the breast. If I remember right it is caused by poor/lack of circulation in that spot, so the tissue there dies and starts to breakdown turning green. It is normally deeper in the meat than a bruise would be. Please keep in mind I haven't raised meat birds, I just remember reading about this some time ago. That said I would have just cut around the bad spot and eaten the rest of the bird.

 

[MsRebekah]

Depending on where the spot was and what it looked like I've heard of cornish X that develop dead tissue in the breast. If I remember right it is caused by poor/lack of circulation in that spot, so the tissue there dies and starts to breakdown turning green. It is normally deeper in the meat than a bruise would be. Please keep in mind I haven't raised meat birds, I just remember reading about this some time ago. That said I would have just cut around the bad spot and eaten the rest of the bird.

That would make sense! It was deep along the sternum at the chest cavity. Maybe I let them go a few weeks too long before processing. thx!

 

[Mosey2003]

It happens with broilers sometimes, nothing to panic about.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/3142/deep-pectoral-myopathy-green-muscle-disease-in-broilers/

 

[GoodwinFarm]

I had it this past year for the first time. The meat is fine, doesn't taste any different but it does kinda suppress your appetite, doesn't it?

 

[9SpiceyChickens]

Nothing to worry about!