Another Great Reason to Go Veg- They are Gassing the Meat
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.22.06
How do you tell if meat is fresh? Smell? Colour? Date stamp? You just lost one test- The Food and Drug Admin in the US allows supermarkets to pack red meat in carbon monoxide gas- just as your lips get a lovely shade of red when you leave the car running in the garage, the meat stays red and fresh looking for weeks. (the two pieces shown are both two weeks old, guess which one got the suicide treatment). It is supposed to be safe but the Consumer Federation of America and the advocacy group Safe Tables Our Priority say the bright red colour could mask spoilage and dangerous bacteria in older meat or meat that has not been kept at the proper temperature. Rep John Dingell of Michigan sez: "It's just common sense that when consumers buy meat, they use color as an important indicator of its freshness...For F.D.A. to rely on a promise of some stamp on the package that says 'use or freeze by' is just naïve." Here is a project for Make- connect tailpipe to refrigerator and have better looking food. ::New York Times
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but wouldn't carbon monoxide destroy bacteria by asphyxiating them? I'd think this process would actually make meat "safer". I'd be more worried about the hormone and antibiotic cocktails the meat was injected with while it was alive. Oh, and don't forget BSE.
The delicious irony is the the very best beef cuts -- the sort sold in Japan and in top end steak houses -- is "aged" up to three weeks at a specific temp, and humidity but with access to air. The "brown" is proof of aging sort of. The exterior is trimmed away as part of the custom butchery just prior to cooking. My family used to age venison in the garage in the same way and it improved tenderness and flavor.
Not only has grocery story culture changed our perceptions of "freshness", they have made us abandon century old traditions that improved quality, in favor of low price and volume. Much like the now-abandoned practice of spraying sodium meta-bisulfite (anti oxidant just like CO) on salad bars and cut fruit. Vitamin C emulsions are now used in place of bisulfite after a huge rash of consumer complaints. Both practices have got consumers convinced that "brown is bad".
That's not a reason to go veg. It's a reason to buy your red meat from places you trust.
And when you go to one of those fancy-pants steak houses and enjoy those tender steaks, just remember they've been 'dry aged,' meaning they've been sitting in the fridge for a few weeks, rotting. The rotting destroys the connective tissue that makes meat tough.
Icelander's right. That's not a reason to go veg. It's a reason to be selective whom you buy meat from, or better yet, to buy organic meat. If it's too expensive, you can start hunting wild game. As a source of cheap healthy meat, it can't be beat.
look: nothing against vegans or against omnivores or even against carnivores, but no matter how you slice it, 1lb of (non-organic) red meat = 22lbs of CO2 emitted into the atmos (and lots of that is from the shipping/refrigerating/processing, not the NPK). So a 16oxz steak from a fancy pants steak house? thats 1 gallon of gasoline being burnt & spewed, regardless of the icky whoremones and weird gassings.....
let's not forget stuff like that, and [ok insert Soilent Green joke here] at least meats from peeps like New Harvest can be grown in tall buildings instead of taking up 60% or our land (not to mention you can grow invitro Brontosaurus Steaks and other groovy meatlike products that have like, the perfect fat/protein for human consumption, juicy steaks that didn't have to dome from a slaughtering meatpacking pain/anger process (mmmmm nothing like eating a mouthful of flight of fight)... and of course way less CO2 emissions....
or maybe we ought to eat quayle/lawyers? BTW Lloyd, those pics are GROSS
I'm so tired of these 'shocking studies' that almost never apply to me because I use that critical part of my brain. What do all of these stories have in common? Stupid people who do the same things and expect different outcomes. If people started supporting local organic agri-business the costs of operating them would come down. Don't get me started.
It's also worth pointing out that this practice is illegal (because it is misleading) almost everywhere outside of the US.
We aren't allowed to kill our own meat here in Orztrailer. Stupid laws to protect the butcher....
I've left cooked meat out for days then eaten it after heating with no ill effects
but brought something from a chain store salad bar and was sick for a week.
The more interference to food by others is the greatest threat to health safety, buy a pet lamb let it eat your lawn for a few months then.. yumm cheapest and tastiest lamb you ever ate.. And another thing... you want to be green... dont flush when you piss or better still dont piss in the lou at all... its sterile and harmless and what a disgusting waste attributed to the romans insanity. human waste and water are a very unhealthy mix.
What was the subject?
Neil
We aren't allowed to kill our own meat here in Orztrailer. Stupid laws to protect the butcher....
I've left cooked meat out for days then eaten it after heating with no ill effects
but brought something from a chain store salad bar and was sick for a week.
The more interference to food by others is the greatest threat to health safety, buy a pet lamb let it eat your lawn for a few months then.. yumm cheapest and tastiest lamb you ever ate.. And another thing... you want to be green... dont flush when you piss or better still dont piss in the lou at all... its sterile and harmless and what a disgusting waste attributed to the romans insanity. human waste and water are a very unhealthy mix.
What was the subject?
Neil
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Folks who believe that the meat industry has advanced greatly since the days of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," are sadly mistaken.
The problem that I view as a result of carbon
monoxide sprayed meat is the unethical butcher shops that will sell meats beyond the limit of thier
shelf life. Being that money is the real God of many
people in the business world. I think that some means of insuring the health of the meat sold to be
able to protect the health of the Consumer. When it
comes to selling meats, poultry, and Groceries in
General, There must be some strict Regulation that
will be inforced for the maintenance of the Health of
our fellow Americans. The problem is, nobody is
present to monitor the ethic of our food Markets.