What’s in a food label? Uncured, naturally cured or no nitrate or nitrite added.

This year I’ve been working on a series of posts about food labels and what they mean. In earlier posts, I talked about what the Natural label means on a meat package, but I get some questions about Uncured, Naturally Cured or processed meat products that are made without nitrate or nitrite.

I’ve covered this topic before in a post called ‘What is Nitrite?’, but I wanted to cover it again in the labeling series.

Some processors want to create friendlier, less chemically labels and choose to remove nitrates. Also, when meat processors want to use the Natural or Organic labels, they are not allowed to add nitrites and nitrates as they are classified by the USDA as chemical preservatives.

 

What if you just removed these ingredients from natural products?

Just take it out. Problem solved.

Some processors do that, but without nitrite, deli ham would not be pink, it would basically be just a pork roast. Tasty meats like bacon and hotdogs wouldn’t have the same flavors we enjoy. And, most importantly, all of these products would be more susceptible to spoilage and the growth of dangerous bacteria. The nitrite helps them last longer on store shelves and in your refrigerator. Nitrite also makes them safer for you and your family.

So, removing it doesn’t work.

What is nitrite anyway and what is its purpose in meat?

Nitrite is added to processed meats like ham, bacon, and sausages (hotdogs, bologna, etc) for 4 reasons:

1.       It prevents the growth of Clostridium botulinum (the bacteria that causes botulism). Botulism can shut down your nervous system and that’s not healthy. It also helps control other dangerous pathogens and bacteria that cause spoilage, so it helps keep meat safe.

2.       It is a very powerful antioxidant and keeps the meat from going rancid. The fat in processed meat can get funky flavors if allowed to oxidize, and nitrite helps to keep that from happening. Ever notice why a package of ham can last for weeks in your fridge while leftovers go bad in a few days?

3.       It gives cured meats their distinct pink color. The nitrite reacts with the muscle protein and changes it to pink, and it stays pink for a much longer time than fresh meat stays red.

4.       It gives cured meats their distinct flavor. That unique “hammy” and smoky flavor of a ham or that unique bacon flavor in bacon comes from the nitrite.



German researchers discovered that nitrite and
not nitrate (curing cousins) was the form of
curing salt responsible for meat curing, and
started to exclusively use nitrite for curing.

Also, without nitrite, several products would completely lose their identity. The USDA has standards of identity that regulate what is a hot dog, bologna, or even bacon and nitrite is an important ingredient for making them what they are. Without it, they are no longer “cured.” This means bacon without nitrite would no longer be bacon, but would instead be cooked pork belly.

How do “Natural” and “Cured” coexist?

Even though, nitrate and nitrite are not allowed to be directly added to natural and organic labeled meat products, other ‘natural’ ingredients with high levels of naturally-occurring nitrate can be used to replace the synthetic forms.

Many vegetables contain high levels of naturally accumulating nitrate. In fact, the main human dietary source of nitrate isn’t processed meats, but actually green leafy vegetables like spinach and celery. When the nitrate is converted to nitrite, presto… meat curing can naturally happen.

Meat processors can use vegetable powder in processed meats as a source of nitrite to create the pink color and cured flavor. On the label, it may be listed as celery powder, flavoring, or natural flavoring. The nitrite derived from vegetables and found in vegetable powder and in natural meats is exactly the same compound as that found in conventionally cured meats.

However, this substitution doesn’t replace all the nitrite needed to provide important quality and safety attributes. The final nitrite levels are lower and the vegetable powder may have to be limited because it can give the meat product its own flavors, too. These lower nitrate levels mean that the naturally cured meats are not as well protected from spoilage and pathogenic bacteria like Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes. So, other steps must be taken to help keep the product safe. Meat processors add natural antimicrobial ingredients or use extra processes like high pressure processing to protect against spoilage and dangerous bacteria.

So what’s the difference, really?

Generally, natural meats are going to be more expensive because the ingredients that go into them are more expensive. However, when your dinner hits the table, natural and conventionally-cured meats should taste the same and both are safe and nutritious for your family.

  

For this post, I want to thank Dr. Jeff Sindelar from the University of Wisconsin for helping me explain all the nitrate/nitrite chemistry. Jeff and I have been buddies since graduate school, and he is a great meat scientist who has devoted his research to naturally-cured meats. You can see him talking about it in his Meat Myth Crusher video.

 

 

 

 

EUROPEAN Horse meat Scandal

Last week, a friend posted a question on facebook about horse meat found in food, and I have had a few questions asked about the horse meat scandal in Europe.

So, I’m sure lots of people are worried about horse meat and all the stories about horse meat in the news.

First, you need to know that this is a European issue. No meat in the US has been found to have horse meat in it. Ever. The chances of that happening here in the US is pretty much zero. My friend, Dr. Davey Griffin, from Texas A&M summed up why horses could never contaminate beef in the US. Here are his main reasons:

1. Horses are not slaughtered in the US. We used to slaughter them here, and all of the meat went to export markets. Even then, we never had a problem with horse meat ending up in beef, pork, or any other products.

2. The level of oversight in the US meat industry is greater than any other country. The USDA employs over 9,000 inspectors in meat, poultry, and egg processing plants all over the country. These inspectors have access to all operations in any plant that produces meat for sale.

3. The US has very strict labeling laws. Even the tiniest mislabeling violation will result in a very costly recall that could bankrupt a company. It’s not worth the risk.

4. The US doesn’t import meat from Europe or horse meat at all. We have no market for horse meat, so there is no economical reason for it to come into the country.

5. It just doesn’t make economic sense. It just wouldn’t make sense to sneak it in to a plant and mix it in beef or pork. The risk is too great.

I want to clarify that horse meat is a safe food to eat. I’ve never tried it myself, but it is regularly eaten in countries all over the world. I would probably try it, given the chance.

So, don’t worry.


Vallie loves Trigger, but she knows he's not in her hamburger.

Kids eat paste. Why worry about meat glue?

You may have recently seen something on the internet, social media, or the news about something called ‘meat glue.’ What the heck is that?

 

 What the media refers to as ‘meat glue,’ is known in the meat industry as transglutaminase (TG) or beef fibrin. They are enzymes used to bind proteins together. Enzymes are proteins that cause chemical reactions to happen in living things. There are several types of proteins in the body, proteins that hold things together (think tendons), proteins that make things move (muscle), proteins that break down food to produce energy (some of these are enzymes), proteins than break down other proteins (some of these are enzymes used as meat tenderizers), and proteins that help build other proteins to help them function correctly.

 

TG and fibrin fall into the last category. They help to build other proteins. They cause proteins in muscle to bind with one another to form a strong bond. So in meat, they can help bind two pieces of meat together.

 

Why is it used in the meat industry?




Beef tenderloin

 Muscles are all kinds of crazy shapes. Some are huge, some are long and skinny, some are shaped like triangles or trapezoids or who knows what. It is hard for butchers to take those muscles with all those different shapes and form them into cuts of meat that are the size and shape that people want to eat. For example, the tenderloin is the most tender muscle in the body and is used to make filet mignon. It is about as big around as a base ball at one end and tapers down to a point at the other. On one end, butchers can cut nice pretty round steaks, but as they cut more and more steaks, they get smaller and smaller. As the butcher gets closer and closer to the small end, the pieces are too small to make a nice steak. They are still the most tender muscle in the body, but they won’t make pretty, portion sized steaks. So, meat scientists and chefs use TG or fibrin to stick two tenderloins together with the skinny end of one adhered to the fatter end of the other one and visa versa. It is still tenderloin, still the most tender cut in the body, but with TG, butchers can cut more, pretty round steaks. More meat for everybody!

Sometimes, chefs use TG or fibrin to get the bacon to stick to filet mignon. I’ve seen examples of it used on salmon and to make that imitation crab stuff.

 

 Where is it found?

 

If these ingredients are used in a food that you buy at the store, according to USDA, the food must be labeled ‘formed’ or ‘fabricated’ or ‘shaped’, as in ‘Formed Chicken Breast’ or ‘Fabricated Steaks.’ A meat product containing TG or fibrin will also have an “enzyme” to transglutaminase enzyme” in the ingredient list. When you cook them, you should treat them like ground meat and cook them to at least 160°F for red meat and all chicken should be cooked to 165°F.  

 

Of course, you can’t read ingredient statements when you dine at restaurants. You can always ask. Foods that are prepared prior to coming to the restaurant will have TG on their ingredient list, and a chef will be able to tell you if he or she is using it themselves. They should be trained in preparing foods containing TG safely, so it should be cooked to safe temperatures.

Some people are concerned that TG or fibrin are going to be used to turn cheap cuts of meat into cuts that can be sold at a higher price. Cheap cuts of meat are cheap for a reason; nothing can change the texture or flavor to make them like filet mignon. If a chef or a company were doing something like that, not only would it hurt their business, it would be against the law. The USDA dictates labeling laws on cuts of meat, and only tenderloin can be labeled as ‘tenderloin’. The folks at the American Meat Institute stated that they do not have any evidence that these deceptive practices are happening.

Furthermore, TG is too expensive to be used on cheap cuts of meat. Because of its price, you will only see it used on expensive cuts like tenderloin or salmon patties or in high-end restaurants where chefs demand higher prices. So, you’re not really consuming it very often. AMI estimates that about 8 million pounds of meat containing these products are sold annually, that is out of 49 billion pounds of beef and pork sold each year (0.016%).

 

As a meat scientist, I think that TG and enzymes like it are neat and exciting. I think it is fun to see what chefs and the guys and girls in research and development come up with using them. I don’t feel like we are trying to trick anyone. And, I know to cook these products to 160°F.

 

Here are some other good sources on transglutaminase and fibrin.

• This video is the best I’ve seen explaining the process and showing how TG is used.
• In this Meat Myth Crusher video, my friend Dr. Dana Hanson, from North Carolina State University explains how TG is used.
• This is a blog post about meat glue from culinary blog called Cooking Issues.
• This is a statement about binding enzymes used in meat products from the American Meat Institute.

What is really in processed meats?

While you are reading the first few sentences of this post, imagine (better yet, sing) an accompaniment of dooming background music. Think Darth Vader. I am going to talk about what is in processed meats (this is a good place for the ‘dun dun duh’ part of the song). Everyone knows the old saying about the only two things you don’t want to see being made are… sausage and legislation. And, we all learned from those menacing little raccoons on ‘The Great Outdoors’ that hot dogs are made from lips and assholes. (dun dun duh).

Some processed meats in Germany from a trip
 several years ago.

Well, as entertaining as the raccoons and the jokes about law-makers may be, they are wrong about processed meats (now imagine light-hearted back ground music). Processed meats are an inexpensive source of protein. They are safe and convenient. They are NOT made with lips and assholes (sorry about the language, Mother) unless it’s on the label.

In the US, we have some of the most stringent food labeling laws in the world. If an ingredient is in a food, then it is on the label. (Side note: I worked at a grocery store in college, and occasionally we had to package ‘real Mexican Chorizo’. Being a meat academic, I read the ingredient statement on the label. Do you really think this company would let us know that their product contained pork salivary glands if they didn’t have to? Uh. No.) If you want to know what is in a certain processed meat, look on the label. If it says ‘Beef’ or ‘Pork’ like most processed meats do, it is only skeletal meat (muscles used to move the bones around). As of right now, that means beef products may contain lean, finely textured beef. Any organ meat (hearts, livers) have to be listed on the label. Lips and ass holes really don’t make very good sausage, anyway.

So, why are processed meats inexpensive? Well, not every bit of a beef or pork carcass will make a good steak or roast. Sometimes the pieces are too small, and sometimes it is too tough to be eaten without being ground up. Those pieces are combined and ground up. Processors add other ingredients like salt and spices for flavor and texture. They are adding value to the low-cost parts and giving us a great tasting, inexpensive source of protein. Processed meats are the only source for protein for kids from some families because it is all they can afford.

Furthermore, lots of processed meats (hot dogs, bologna, and deli meats) are pre-cooked and can be eaten straight out of the fridge*. They are quick and easy. Any meat product that is ‘ready-to-eat’, meaning completely cooked and ready to be served to the consumer without any further preparation, is subject to extra regulations by USDA. They have to show how they are keeping their product safe, they may add extra, bacteria fighting measures to the process, and are subject to extra bacteria testing. It is safe stuff.

Some people worry about nitrite in processed meats. Nitrite is a key ingredient that gives cured meats the flavor and color we have become accustomed to enjoying. Think pink hams and hot dogs. Yum! Also, nitrite prevents the growth of a nasty bacteria Clostridium botulinum, the one that causes botulism.

Did you know that you get more nitrite from green, leafy vegetables than from processed meats? Actually, the body makes nitrite using saliva combined with these vegetables because it needs it. The body uses nitrite to perform all kinds of functions from regulating blood pressure to helping heal wounds and brain injury after a stroke.

The folks at the American Meat Institute did an interview with a friend of mine, Jeff Sindelar at the University of Wisconsin about sources of nitrite in the diet. His main research focus is on nitrites in processed meats.

There are some very scary claims out there linking hot dogs with an increased cancer risk. Although these claims are recurrently cycled on the news, the data that they are based on is from over 40 years ago. They claim that the nitrite in processed meats (hot dogs) is a carcinogen. There is a researcher at the University of Texas named Dr. Nathan Bryan who studies the effects of dietary nitrite on the human body, and he says that current research not only found no cancer risk with nitrite, but also found health benefits. Basically, current science says, “Don’t be afraid of hotdogs!”

Also, I have written a post about nitrite and one about making sausage in our meat lab.
Besides, do you really think ESPN would put an international broccoli eating competition on TV?

*(Side note: Just to be extra safe, pregnant women should not eat hotdogs and deli meats, without heating them up first, because of an abortion-causing bacteria rarely found in ready-to-eat deli meats and hotdogs)