CALGARY – Outside of North America people have been eating ostriches for years, but there’s almost no research on meat quality and bird composition.
For the youthful Canadian industry, that information is critical to moving beyond the breeder market to a commercial meat business. To collect that data, the Alberta Ostrich Association contracted Agriculture Canada’s staff at the Lacombe research station to investigate slaughter techniques and meat processing.
During a recent ostrich seminar, meat scientist Steve Morgan-Jones gave the association a report about Lacombe’s work this fall, along with suggestions for further research. A video, produced by the federal food inspection branch, will be circulated among meat inspectors in federal plants to show them how to slaughter and process ostriches.
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Because the industry is so new to Canada, education is needed in how to kill the birds, eviscerate them, inspect the meat and analyze its quality.
What does carcass weigh?
Apart from the Texas A & M University work, there is little idea how much a carcass weighs compared to its liveweight, said Jones.
Breeders donated six females and 17 males, with an average age of 14 to 15 months, to the project. The ostriches were held without water overnight before slaughter.
“When we start looking at a commercial industry it would probably be better, from my perspective, to see the birds slaughtered on the same day rather than being held,” Jones said.
The birds went through basically the same slaughter procedure as other species. After being stunned with a captive bolt, they were stuck in the heart cavity to bleed properly.
Hides are worth about 10 times that of cattle hides, so skin removal was done carefully. Compressed air was injected between the skin and underlying tissues, allowing mechanical removal of the hide. Minimal defects result from this technique, said Jones.
Learning as they went along, researchers found the ostrich anatomy has distinct characteristics compared to other birds. Unlike poultry, the best cuts are on the thighs, hips and back. As a flightless bird, the ostrich has little muscle on breast and wings.
Birds dressed out at about 58 percent for females and 60 percent for males. Average live weight was 85 kilograms. This is comparable to cattle percentages, but lower than the dressing percentage of poultry. Muscle to bone ratios were similar to other domestic animals.
Researchers found the meat to be dark, which Jones said requires further investigation. Dark meat is caused by a high pH factor in the tissue at post-mortem and could lead to fresh meat storage problems.
“I can’t tell you from the trials we did whether this is something that was caused by the pre-slaughter handling or whether it is something inherent in the ostrich,” he said.
Different cooking procedures
The meat is lean and requires special cooking procedures to avoid dryness. Although comparable in color and texture to beef, it must be cooked differently and consumers might be disappointed with the final product unless instructions are provided.
“That information is absolutely vital. Otherwise you’re going to end up with a disaster on marketing the product,” Jones said.
A trained panel of individuals at Lacombe rated tenderness and palatability of ostrich higher than a beef roast cooked at the same time.
