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Loading...Is Meat Glue Safe?
- Samantha, selected from TreeHugger
- May 14, 2012
- 4:12 pm
- 77 comments
By Sara Novak, TreeHugger
Transglutaminase and beef fibrin, often called meat glue, is an ingredient used across the food industry to hold together smaller cuts of meat, poultry, and fish that’s been used for decades. Meat glue itself isn’t considered dangerous by most, but there is a larger fear of food borne illness when small pieces of meat, sourced from different places, are held together.
FDA Opinion
The FDA says the ingredient is “generally recognized as safe” but consumers have been grossed out by the idea that they could be eating beef tenderloin that’s actually tiny little pieces of beef glued together and sold at a higher cost.
Meat glue is actually a powder added to meat and rolled up in plastic wrap. The meat is refrigerated for 6 hours and the result is a solid piece of meat that’s seemingly impossible to tell from the real thing.
Like pink slime, the practice has endured harsh public scrutiny as much because of a lack of transparency as anything else. But meat glue, unlike pink slime, is labeled. The ammonia used in pink slime isn’t listed on any ingredient labels because it’s considered a “processing agent” even though it’s completely misleading to think that it doesn’t end up in the final product.
The Industry Responds
But even if it’s listed very few people actually knew what it was until recently. In an effort to ensure that meat glue doesn’t endure the same fate as pink slime, the meat industry is responding to recent criticism.
Food Safety News reports:
“We’re definitely making an effort to engage,” said Janet Riley, the head of public affairs for the American Meat Institute, which represents the major players in the meat industry. Riley has made a point of addressing transparency concerns head on, noting that the practice of using TG and beef fibrin is “absolutely not a secret.”
And is it safe? Again, Food Safety News:
Dana Hanson, an extension meat scientist at North Carolina State University, said that it is possible that different cuts put together could be more susceptible to contamination by potentially introducing pathogens into the center of a pieced-together steak. But Hanson said that federal cooking recommendations would be sufficient to kill any bacteria.
But once again, public input is making the food industry shutter in fear of a negative reaction and without a doubt, transparency is a good thing.
Image: tarale / Creative Commons
Read more: Conscious Consumer, Eating for Health, Food, meat glue
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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77 comments
+ add your ownYes, it does go down to profit, but that is nothing new in the market place as deception is a common practice be it in selling used cars that have been in an accident and saying that it is accident free or many other practices.
Ineke B. comments that the only way to avoid this deception in the meat industry is to avoid eating meat in the first place. No, not true at all, simply purchase your meat from organic farms, free range operations directly from the farmer. No toxins, no glue, no hormones and no antibiotics. Some of this organic meat is also for sale at specialty shops.
Eating meat is fine when you can trust the source. Eating a balanced diet is also necessary. Avoid veggies that are sprayed and saturated in chemicals and are genetically engineered as well for health reasons. We are in a "Buyer Beware" world these days. I have no intention of stopping eating meat or veggies, just have to watch where it comes from!
Gross and grosser!!
This is another deception by the meat industry. It's all about money. The only way to avoid this is to stop eating meat altogether.
scary
scary
THANKS
thankyou so much. I'd never heard of this before.
By the way, the butterfly credit cause "Raise A Farm Animal Humanely" is NOT a sanctuary for rescued farm animals, as the title suggests. It is a slaughtering farm that profits from selling animal parts for humans to eat. If you were not aware of this fact before, please email or petition Care2 to let them know that too many members are misled by this title.
Whoever eats meat deserves the glue!!
I'm pleased I don't eat meat, but understand how it must be alarming to know that something you think is real and fresh - turns out to be pieces glued together. It's dishonest.
Its like looking at marked prices in Canadian supermarkets. The fresh food prices look reasonable, but when you look closely you see that the price is shown in pounds or lbs. Nothing is bought or measured in pounds in Canadian supermarkets. When you look closer you see small figures showing the kilogram/kg. price. Then the vegetables suddenly seem to cost a whole lot more and you feel hoodwinked.
This is such a deceptive and dishonest practice.
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