A precise, technical term for meat — the muscle, fat, connective tissue and organs of slaughtered animals used as food. The phrase dominates regulatory, analytical and trade language, where exactness matters: residue legislation sets maximum limits ‘in animal tissues’, applying separate values to muscle, liver, kidney and fat because contaminants distribute unevenly — heavy metals concentrate in kidney, lipophilic compounds in fat, and so on. Analysts therefore sample specified tissues rather than generic ‘meat’. The term also appears in pathology and inspection reports describing lesions found at slaughter.