Does Meat Have Chemicals Injected Into It?
We hope everyone had a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable 4th of July!
For many of us, a hallmark of the celebrations is enjoying barbecues with friends and family. No backyard barbecue would be complete without some hamburgers, hot dogs, and juicy grilled chicken, am I right?
As we feasted on our own meal surrounded by family, I thought of a topic that would make an interesting post for a Factual Friday.
Not too long ago, I saw someone post on Facebook with some concerns that the ground beef that they were cooking didn’t brown up the right way. It looked pale, almost like ground turkey, despite being labeled as ground beef and having a high fat percentage.
Likely, the issue was accidental mislabeling at the grocery store of the fat content. This can - and does - happen, and it’s usually not that big of a deal (it just affects how your meat cooks up, and of course, the fat and calorie content of the meal). But when I took to the comments section, I was surprised to see a ton of folks pointing the finger at different culprits.
Injections. Antibiotics. Hormones. “Not real meat - fake bio meat.” “It’s beef from Mexico and it tastes like crap.” “Bill Gates lab meat.” “Factory processed vegetable meat.” “Bleached and dyed.” “Bio engineered.” My personal favorite - “Democrat meat” (not sure if that meant meat made out of Democrats or Democrat-funded meat, but it was amusing to say the least).
Now what’s the truth behind all that - and does meat have “stuff” injected into it?
**J&R Pierce Family Farm is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to allow sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products on Amazon. I often link to Amazon when recommending certain products, and if you choose to purchase, I may earn a small percentage of the sale. It costs you nothing extra, and all recommended products are ones that I personally vouch for.**
Debunking Some Myths
Let’s break it down.
The first thing to get out of the way is the lab meat accusation. Lab-grown meat (including “Bill Gates lab meat”) is not on store shelves yet. Lab-grown chicken was briefly approved for sale in late 2023, but the US quickly rescinded its allowance due to some serious backlash. Several lawmakers are pushing heavily against the sale of lab-grown meat in the future, too, having cited concerns about restricting consumer choices, the heavy use of resources like water and electricity, and more.
So, no - you’re not being force-fed lab-grown meat at the grocery store without you knowing about it. Trust me, your wallet will recognize it before you get that meat home - it’s incredibly costly to produce and those costs are almost certainly going to be passed on to consumers.
The same goes for the “factory processed vegetable meat,” which I can only assume has to refer to things like Beyond Meat. These are also more expensive than real meat, and you’re going to know that’s what you’re buying because of that (and because these companies spend a ludicrous amount of money on marketing their products to a vegan and vegetarian audience - they want people to know these are meatless products. They’re not being sneaky about it).
The beef from Mexico claim does hold a little bit of water, since I’ve written before about how labeling laws in the US do allow for an astronomical amount of our meat supply to be imported in from other countries, often without clear labeling that informs the consumer what they’re buying.
But I don’t know that you could argue that the quality is that much different, and since this meat does still pass through a USDA inspection, it’s probably not that different than the meat that’s being sold to you by Smithfield Foods (which, fun fact, is owned by Hong Kong-based WH Group and is not the patriotic entity many of us believe it to be).
Is Grocery Store Meat “Injected”?
The final claim - and the one I’m paying the most attention to here today - is that grocery store meat has “stuff injected into it.”
There’s a little bit of truth to this, but as always, it’s not as clear cut as we’d like to believe.
Let’s start the conversation with beef.
When you buy meat at the grocery store, it may have been injected, but it will be labeled as such. Occasionally, meat - including chicken, beef, and pork - will be injected with a saline solution.
Sometimes it’s been injected with a flavor enhancer, like teriyaki sauce, but again, under federal law, the label must include that disclaimer. It will say something like, “chicken breast- 40% added solution of water and teriyaki sauce.”
In fact, about 30% of poultry, 15% of beef, and 90% of pork are injected with a “liquid solution” that is usually just water and sodium. Additives are not allowed in fresh beef. Additives are allowed in processed beef (like jerky), but again, it must be labeled.
So why do food companies do this? In some cases, water is injected into poultry carcasses to make them look bigger. This isn’t anything new, and it’s not a US-exclusive problem, though several European countries have banned American poultry for a different reason (which I’ll discuss below). In China, in 2014, food processors were charged with injecting dirty pond water into lamb meat to swell its weight and raise its price.
In the US, it’s all about aesthetics, and again, if the meat has been enhanced with a sodium solution, it will say so.
The reason why American poultry is banned in Europe (since 1997) instead has to do with the common practice of chlorine bathing in large slaughterhouses. Chlorine “kills bacteria, controls slime and algae, increases product shelf life [and] eliminates costly hand-cleaning labor and materials.” It also reduces odors and bacterial counts. “Pinners” - people in the slaughter facility who remove trace feathers by hand - wash their hands with chlorinated water, and the meat is also disinfected with chlorine to remove bacteria from the conveyor belts, which are the ideal breeding ground.
The National Chicken Council estimates that chlorine is used in less than 5% of US processing plants.
What do the rest use? Peracetic acid.
Does It Matter - and What About Pink Slime?
The problem here to me isn’t necessarily the fact that chlorine or peracetic acid is being used, as studies have demonstrated that the minimal residues of chlorine aren’t really a health hazard to humans. In fact, chlorine-rinsed salads are still allowed in the EU.
The concern is that relying on a chlorine rinse at the end of a meat production cycle could be a way of mitigating poor hygiene standards - a sign that abattoirs are not clean or are overly crowded.
The questions don’t end there.
Does anybody remember the “pink slime” scandal back in 2012? Essentially, pink slime was a meat by-productive used as an additive or filler in ground beef. It was a paste that was exposed to ammonia gas or citric acid to kill bacteria.
Today, in the US, ammonia can be used as an antimicrobial agent in ground beef as well as beef-based processed meats. It is not allowed in Canada or the European Union.
The USDA issued a statement: “The process used to produce LFTB is safe and has been used for a very long time. And adding LFTB to ground beef does not make that ground beef any less safe to consume.”
Technically, this additive - lean finely textured beef is what it’s commonly known as - can constitute up to 15% of ground beef without additional labeling and can also be added to other beef products. It can just be labeled “lean finely textured beef.”’
Aside from that, ground beef must be “made of fresh and/or frozen beef, with or without seasoning, and without the addition of beef fat. It cannot contain more than 30% fat or contain any added water, phosphates, binders, or extenders,” per the Code of Federal Regulation.
Some people have expressed concerns that ground beef processors “grind up the whole cow.” That’s not the case. It’s made of trim meat - meat that’s too tough to cut into steaks. You’re not getting organs and eyeballs in your cheeseburger, folks.
Why is Meat Different Colors at the Grocery Store?
The final question I see people talking about is why meat is different colors at the grocery store. In other words, if you buy a package of ground beef at the grocery store and take it home to compare it to a package of beef you purchased from a local processor, why are the two different colors?
It all has to do with what kind of trimmings are used and how the meat is aged and packaged.
For the most part, the color of the meat is most influenced by the presence of oxygen. Products that are purchased from larger processors (ie, the meat from the grocery store) are often placed in what’s called “modified atmosphere packaging,” so there’s a blend of gasses (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen) in the package. This causes the meat to be a bright-red color. Let the meat sit for a while, and it will likely turn the exact same color as any other meat.
There are other factors that can impact the meat color, too, such as the diet of an animal, whether the animal was stressed or in estrus, or even the age of the animal. None of these present any kind of health concern.
When it comes to processed meats (we’re talking your deli meat, bacon, etc) - that’s a whole different ballpark. These can have additives, and again, they’ll be labeled. Things like BHA, carrageenan, modified food starch, monosodium glutamate, and most famously, sodium nitrite. Sodium nitrite is often used in conjunction with sodium nitrate; this one IS a color fixative - meaning it helps preserve color - and also prevents botulism.
Again - this is found only in cured meat (hot dogs, bologna, bacon, etc). And again - it will be labeled.
So if you’re curious about what’s in your “grocery store meat” - just check the label. If you’re not sure what it is, give it a Goog. The good news is we don’t need to worry too much about being given a false bill of sale here - as long as you’re willing to read the fine print.
