Meat Glue: The Meat Industry’s Dirty Secret

[no1_vern]

Meat Glue: The Meat Industry’s Dirty Secret | Green Prophet

Quote:

The white powder sold by the kilo, above, is the meat industry’s dirty little secret. It’s “meat glue.” It makes pieces of beef, lamb, chicken or fish that would normally be thrown out stick together so closely that it looks like a solid piece of meat. See also our posts on Israel’s frozen fish scandal and how garlic from China is scary stuff.

Restaurants and butchers can now sell their scraps as premium meat. Good way to use them up – and charge premium prices for them too. Best of all, you don’t have to tell the customer. Once the glued meat is cooked, even professional butchers can’t tell the difference.

[Creatures]

cheap stuff is basically cheap stuff, you get what you pay.
there was a lengthy documentary about that (and other food industry secrets) in TV, everything cheap is cheap for a reason. if you buy meat buy it directly from the butcher

Creatures

[MTAtech]

Have no idea if it's harmful but I think consumers have a right to know what they're eating. I buy only kosher meat but am concerned that the kosher version may be used.

But on the other hand, parts is parts.

[Theophylact]

Actually, I heard a discussion of this on the podcast of Cooking Issues, the French Culinary Institute's Tech blog. Here's their dope on transglutaminase, which they think is pretty amazing.

A personal caution from one of the guys:

Quote:

With meat glue you can glue any protein to any protein. Great, right? Well, just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. Gluing salmon to salmon is a very good idea. You get a piece of fish that is uniform; looks the same, cooks the same. Gluing chicken to salmon is not such a great idea because they have different textures and different cooking temperatures. The salmon will be dead before the chicken is cooked. Gluing chicken skin to salmon works quite well though, and will actually protect the outside of the salmon from overcooking. The other thing to take in consideration is how many pieces of meat you are fusing together. Some people try to make the case that you can use all the small pieces you have left over from fabricating to make a whole muscle cut. For example, the trimmings from tenderloin can be glued together to make a couple of extra portions –but they aren’t fillet mignon steaks. Bad idea. With too many small pieces, the meat will just look “Frankensteined.” Also, the texture will be completely different than a piece made from two or three (maximum) pieces.

[Creatures]

not saying that it is bad as there is afiak no potential harm BUT when you buy meat you want it to be the real thing and not put together from leftovers

Creatures

[Theophylact]

Absolutely.

The Culinary Institute guys are into the high-tech stuff that Adrian Ferrà, Nathan Myhrvold and so on are: foams made of improbable substances, flash-freezing with liquid nitrogen, distillation with rotovaps, clarification using centrifuges, slow-cooking under vacuum seal, and so on. They're not perpetrating fraud, they're offering novel sensual experiences. When McDonald's uses the technique, it's to sell scrap as whole meat.

[surreal]

What do you think holds together the chicken nuggets and steak fingers served in the school cafeterias?
I do not believe that anyone much less a professional butcher can't tell the difference.

[surreal]

Oh this is different from what I thought it was...
I take that comment back I can see how some people couldn't tell the difference.
Industry-Wide Use of Meat Glue Sticks Together Scraps of Meat To Sell You Prime Cuts | Health Freedom Alliance

[MTAtech]

Ah, just like mother used to make it (she was a chemical engineer.)

[GroundZero3]

That is why I dont mind paying the extra money at Whole Foods, they cut up everything in store