Myoglobin contains a porphyrin ring that has iron at its center. This is quite evident when comparing the color of meat from mature cows to meat from veal calves. Also, as animals increase in age, myoglobin loses its affinity to bind oxygen making meat from older animals darker than meat from younger animals. Myoglobin is a pigment, so the more myoglobin present in a muscle, the darker the color of the meat will be. In poultry, comparing dark meat, thighs, to white meat, breast, is an obvious example of this difference. Locomotive muscles do more work than support muscles, therefore, locomotive muscles will have more myoglobin than do support muscles. Some muscles will have more myoglobin than other muscles. Myoglobin serves to store the oxygen that is brought to muscle through the blood supply for when it is needed. Myoglobin is the heme-iron-containing protein in muscle. Most people are familiar with hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to our cells. The core component of meat color is the pigment, myoglobin.
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