2.2: Poultry

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The word poultry refers to all domesticated birds raised for their meat. Although chickens are the most popular poultry consumed, other species include turkeys, ducks, geese, guinea fowls, and pigeons (squabs). Game birds such as pheasant, wild duck, and quail are also consumed, but few of them reach the marketplace. Emus and ostriches, though not yet readily available in all parts of the country, are being bred for their lower-fat meat. Despite the variety of poultry, chickens, raised by humans for over 4,000 years (11), remain the most common poultry consumed. Chickens are especially useful because both their meat and their eggs are consumed. Th e popularity of chicken and turkey continues to increase at the expense of beef (18). In the last 40 years, production of broilers (young chickens) in the United States has increased from about 34 million to over 6 billion (3). Poultry is important to the diet, and the purpose of this chapter is to discuss poultry classification, composition, purchasing, preparation, and storage.