Meat

Meat is animal tissue, mostly muscle, that is eaten as food, and humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The domestication of animals raised for meat, including chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and cattle, took hold during the Neolithic Revolution roughly 11,000 years ago, and selective breeding since then has shaped animals toward the meat qualities consumers prefer. Meat is composed mainly of water, protein and fat, and its quality is shaped by an animal's genetics, health and nutrition, and left unpreserved it typically spoils within hours or days from bacterial and fungal activity, so it is commonly cooked by stewing or roasting, or preserved by smoking or salting, though it can also be eaten raw. Its significance reaches across economic, cultural and religious life around the world.