Mike
Well-known member
Pumping up meat
As more grocers shift to prepackaged meat, 'enhanced' with salt and water, critics ask how trend benefits consumers
By ELIZABETH LEE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LABEL-READING TIP
How can you tell whether a package of fresh meat has been injected with a solution?
Check the package label on front. U.S. Department of Agriculture policy says that meat with added liquid must state on that label that it contains a solution, and the percentage. The nutrition facts box, usually on the back of a package with added solution, lists the ingredients.
The USDA prohibits adding water to meat; it's considered an adulterant. But if that added water contains any other ingredient, such as salt, it's considered a solution. That's OK, as long as the package label identifies it.
You may notice another water statement, usually on poultry labels. That's something different. A retained water percentage refers to how much water is absorbed by chickens or turkeys from being dunked in a chilling tank or sprayed after evisceration, as a food safety measure. That labeling rule, which took effect in January, was intended, in part, to encourage manufacturers to reduce the amount of retained water by making that information available to consumers.
The retained water labeling rule applies only to single-ingredient, raw meat and poultry. It doesn't apply to meat or poultry with added solutions.
To the casual shopper, the two packs of New York strip steaks look almost identical. The foam trays. The clear plastic wrap. The rich, red color and creamy marbling.
Take a closer look, though, and differences start to appear. One package lists 12 percent added beef broth, salt and other flavoring agents and preservatives among its ingredients.
But many shoppers never notice the fine print.
"I figured meat is meat," says Angela Wyatt of Norcross, shopping at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Roswell.
That's not always true anymore.
Meat is changing from a fresh commodity to a processed food. That transformation is affecting how we cook, what's available, whether it's more or less likely to contain bacteria that can cause foodborne illness and even how much sodium and food additives we consume. And it may mean the supermarket butcher is going the way of the milkman.
Industry observers say the kind of meat available is splitting into two types: increasingly processed, for everyday cooking, and premium meats for a niche market. The middle ground, the cuts of minimally processed meats with no added ingredients that have been a supermarket staple for decades, is slowly dwindling.
Supermarkets are buying prepackaged meat that can be unloaded from a shipping carton directly into self-service cases, much like luncheon meat. Already the standard for most chicken and nearly half of all pork and ground beef, this type of packaging is moving slowly to top-drawer cuts like steaks, chops and roasts. The industry term for this meat, prepared in a meat-packing plant rather than a store's backroom, is case-ready.
Prepackaged meat promises to boost profits for supermarkets by lowering labor costs and extending shelf life. Other than sturdier, leak-resistant packaging, the benefits for consumers are less clear. Stores are less likely to run out of popular cuts. But they may be more likely to restrict the variety they stock to top sellers.
Often case-ready meat is injected with a saline solution and preservatives to add juiciness or marinated to boost its appeal to time-pressed shoppers looking for a quick-fix dinner. The practice, long-standing for Thanksgiving turkeys, has spread to most chicken and pork and some beef.
If the meat contains added water, it is less likely to toughen if overcooked. That enhancement -- called pumping -- can give a consistent flavor and texture.
It also means shoppers pay meat prices for water, says Thomas Schneller, an assistant professor in the meat department of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Injected meat is usually priced lower per pound, but not always. Depending on where you shop, you may actually pay more for injected meat. Solutions typically range from 8 percent to 15 percent of added liquid, with some marinated meats containing as much as 30 percent.
Meat experts say it's one thing to pump boneless chicken breasts and thin pork chops, which have little fat or natural flavor and dry out quickly if overcooked. It's another to add as much as 12 percent water to premium cuts like USDA Choice filet mignon and New York strip, or to fatty meats like pork butt.
"It's a terrible trend," says Bruce Aidells, author of a number of meat cookbooks and a former owner of Aidells Sausage Co., which makes gourmet links. "Whenever a meat company can sell you water at the price of meat, they're winning."
Retailers and industry representatives say the added liquid makes even steak taste better.
"We believe it improves the overall quality of the product and gives our customers a better eating experience," says Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk. "Case-ready meat is superior in tenderness and texture and juiciness and flavor to non-enhanced beef cuts."
Kristine Davis of east Cobb County isn't so sure. She buys case-ready meat regularly, including pork with added water and salt. She's noticed a difference only on thin pork chops, which had such a pronounced change in texture that she dug through her trash can to read the label from the discarded package. That's when she learned they were injected.
"It was too wet," she says. "It didn't seem natural. It didn't taste like all the other pork chops."
Like Davis, more than 60 percent of shoppers aren't aware that the meat packages they drop in their carts have changed, according to a 2002 study for the Food Marketing Institute, a supermarket trade group.
Yet odds are they've eaten case-ready meats before, even if they don't realize it. Quick-service restaurants, midscale chains and even a few fine dining ones rely heavily on similar products, called pre-portioned cuts. Like their supermarket counterparts, many are enhanced with added liquid.
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest food retailer, converted to all case-ready in 2001. Much of Wal-Mart's pork, chicken and beef also are enhanced with added liquid.
"We are always looking at ways to provide our customers with quality products at low prices," Burk says. "We thought it was a good fit for us and our customers."
Super Target has adopted case-ready meat as well, including Hormel's line of steaks with up to 12 percent added liquid. Kroger stocks case-ready beef in all of its metro Atlanta division stores, although it still operates full-service meat counters with butchers in some locations. Kroger's beef isn't pumped, but it does sell injected pork under a Kroger label, and Tyson's injected chicken.
As prevalent as case-ready beef is in metro Atlanta, there are some sizable holdouts. Publix intends to keep its meat cutters as a service to shoppers and to distinguish itself from competitors, says spokesman Lee Brunson. Whole Foods and Harry's have bucked the trend by expanding full-service counters and shrinking self-serve cases in the past year.
Still, industry predictions call for growth. About a fourth of all packages of beef sold in 2001 were case-ready. That should grow to one-third by 2005, estimates the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
Economics are driving the trend, industry observers say. Meat cutters are among the highest-paid supermarket employees. Wal-Mart converted to all prepackaged meat just 11 days after a group of meat cutters in a Jacksonville, Texas, store became the chain's only employees to vote to unionize. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher says the union vote didn't influence Wal-Mart's decision to embrace case-ready, saying the chain was already testing the meat products.
Competitors took notice. Wal-Mart's dominance with price-conscious shoppers has other chains examining their costs and looking for ways to pare them down.
"Taking what was once one of the most labor-intensive departments and finding a way to save on labor and replace expensive union meat cutters with a ready-to-package, ready-to-display system for case-ready meats ends up making a big difference in their bottom line," says Dan Murphy, vice president of public affairs for the American Meat Institute, a beef, turkey and pork industry lobbying group.
Differences to note
Depending on the store, you may pay more -- or less -- for case-ready meat, or meat with added solutions. A pound of Hormel USDA Choice filet mignon, with up to 12 percent of an added solution, costs $12.99 at SuperTarget. A pound of USDA Choice filet mignon with no added liquid costs $10.69 at Costco; $16.99 at Publix.
The extra salt in pumped meat shouldn't cause a problem for most healthy Americans, nutritionists say. But for those on reduced-sodium diets, it's another story, particularly if they don't realize they're buying meat with added salt.
A 4-ounce Hormel beef tenderloin steak with a 12 percent salt solution contains more than five times as much sodium as an uninjected steak: 310 milligrams, or 13 percent of a day's allowance, compared with 56 milligrams for the plain steak.
"My parents are both on blood pressure medicine," Davis says. "They don't eat canned food because they don't want the sodium. I wonder if they realize they're getting it [in meat]."
Aside from salt, the most noticeable change is texture. Meat may taste softer, or mushier, because the pumping process causes muscle fibers to unwind, absorb water and swell in size.
"When you compare it to the real thing," Aidells says, "it doesn't have the taste."
Trying for tender
Once a brand name goes on a package of meat, expectations change. The meatpacker or retailer wants to deliver a consistent product. Since the taste and tenderness of beef vary, that can be a challenge. Injecting flavoring solutions evens out differences in taste. Tenderizing meat, either through inserting many small needles or double-edged blades, or tumbling, somewhat like a clothes dryer's action, can make the texture more consistent. Both processes can improve the taste and tenderness of leaner Select beef, the lowest grade typically sold in supermarkets. Choice, the higher grade found in supermarkets, contains more marbling from fat, which adds flavor and moisture.
Mechanically tenderized meats do not have to be labeled. The majority of steaks and roasts packaged for hotel, restaurant and institutional use undergo this process, according to a USDA risk assessment of bacterial contamination in such meat. Some supermarket brands labeled as "tender," but without added liquid, also are mechanically tenderized.
That risk assessment considered whether needle-tenderized steaks were more likely to contain deadly E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria. It called for more research but concluded the risk was only slightly higher: about seven additional illnesses due to tenderization for every billion steak servings.
But in June, an Illinois meatpacker recalled nearly 740,000 pounds of frozen beef, mostly injected steaks, that may have been linked to five E. coli 0157:H7 illnesses, according to a recall notice posted on the USDA Web site. That recall notice recommended cooking similar products to 160 degrees, the same temperature recommended to kill potential E. coli bacteria in ground beef. But Steven Cohen, a USDA spokesman, said the agency has not raised its minimum recommended temperature for cooking steaks and roasts from 145 degrees for medium rare.
The USDA has begun sampling solution-injected beef for E. coli contamination, as it does at ground beef packing plants.
The butcher's tale
From behind the counter of his family's New York butcher shop, where he'd started learning the trade at 8, Ed Cifu watched generations of families come in to buy meat. He held on to the store even when every other independent butcher shop nearby closed. Finally he, too, packed it in. As a supermarket meat cutter, he watched from the back room as shoppers circled empty cases looking for deeply discounted ground beef and rushed meat cutters when they brought out a fresh supply.
Now Cifu is meat coordinator for Whole Foods' Southern region, which includes the Harry's Farmers Markets. He's trying to attract a different customer there, one who wants organic or natural meat with minimal processing, bought from a glass display case where it has rested just a few hours. It's a niche market, but one that he believes is growing.
He's training meat cutters to deliver smiles and cooking advice as well as wield a knife and make sausage. Customers want that contact with a butcher, he believes.
"They want to be reassured about what they're buying," Cifu says. "They don't want to just go to a wall."
Overall trends say otherwise. Independent butchers have been vanishing for decades. Metro Atlanta has just a handful of stand-alone butcher shops left, such as Shields Meat Market in Decatur and Oak Grove Market in central DeKalb County. A recent issue of a supermarket trade publication suggests that grocery-store butchers may soon disappear from the landscape, too.
The Food Marketing Institute, a trade group for supermarkets, surveyed shoppers in 2002 on their attitudes toward case-ready meat. A third said they believe meat packaged at a plant is not as good a quality as meat packaged in the store. Only 6 percent said they believed case-ready meat was of higher quality than store-packed.
E.W. Leonard of Morningside, buying dry-aged steaks, sausage links and Frenched racks of lamb at a Whole Foods store in Midtown, says he hasn't bought meat at a self-serve counter in years. He prefers to speak to the meat cutters at Kroger and Whole Foods, and have them select and wrap his purchases.
"My perception, whether it's correct or not, is it's fresher," Leonard says.
Davis, of east Cobb, says how meat is packaged doesn't matter to her. But what happens to it before it goes into the package does. She has diabetes and shuns marinated meats in case they contain too many carbohydrates that might wreak havoc with blood sugar levels. Now she's got something else to scrutinize, something she hadn't counted on before.
"Maybe," she says, "I need to go read the label."
As more grocers shift to prepackaged meat, 'enhanced' with salt and water, critics ask how trend benefits consumers
By ELIZABETH LEE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LABEL-READING TIP
How can you tell whether a package of fresh meat has been injected with a solution?
Check the package label on front. U.S. Department of Agriculture policy says that meat with added liquid must state on that label that it contains a solution, and the percentage. The nutrition facts box, usually on the back of a package with added solution, lists the ingredients.
The USDA prohibits adding water to meat; it's considered an adulterant. But if that added water contains any other ingredient, such as salt, it's considered a solution. That's OK, as long as the package label identifies it.
You may notice another water statement, usually on poultry labels. That's something different. A retained water percentage refers to how much water is absorbed by chickens or turkeys from being dunked in a chilling tank or sprayed after evisceration, as a food safety measure. That labeling rule, which took effect in January, was intended, in part, to encourage manufacturers to reduce the amount of retained water by making that information available to consumers.
The retained water labeling rule applies only to single-ingredient, raw meat and poultry. It doesn't apply to meat or poultry with added solutions.
To the casual shopper, the two packs of New York strip steaks look almost identical. The foam trays. The clear plastic wrap. The rich, red color and creamy marbling.
Take a closer look, though, and differences start to appear. One package lists 12 percent added beef broth, salt and other flavoring agents and preservatives among its ingredients.
But many shoppers never notice the fine print.
"I figured meat is meat," says Angela Wyatt of Norcross, shopping at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Roswell.
That's not always true anymore.
Meat is changing from a fresh commodity to a processed food. That transformation is affecting how we cook, what's available, whether it's more or less likely to contain bacteria that can cause foodborne illness and even how much sodium and food additives we consume. And it may mean the supermarket butcher is going the way of the milkman.
Industry observers say the kind of meat available is splitting into two types: increasingly processed, for everyday cooking, and premium meats for a niche market. The middle ground, the cuts of minimally processed meats with no added ingredients that have been a supermarket staple for decades, is slowly dwindling.
Supermarkets are buying prepackaged meat that can be unloaded from a shipping carton directly into self-service cases, much like luncheon meat. Already the standard for most chicken and nearly half of all pork and ground beef, this type of packaging is moving slowly to top-drawer cuts like steaks, chops and roasts. The industry term for this meat, prepared in a meat-packing plant rather than a store's backroom, is case-ready.
Prepackaged meat promises to boost profits for supermarkets by lowering labor costs and extending shelf life. Other than sturdier, leak-resistant packaging, the benefits for consumers are less clear. Stores are less likely to run out of popular cuts. But they may be more likely to restrict the variety they stock to top sellers.
Often case-ready meat is injected with a saline solution and preservatives to add juiciness or marinated to boost its appeal to time-pressed shoppers looking for a quick-fix dinner. The practice, long-standing for Thanksgiving turkeys, has spread to most chicken and pork and some beef.
If the meat contains added water, it is less likely to toughen if overcooked. That enhancement -- called pumping -- can give a consistent flavor and texture.
It also means shoppers pay meat prices for water, says Thomas Schneller, an assistant professor in the meat department of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Injected meat is usually priced lower per pound, but not always. Depending on where you shop, you may actually pay more for injected meat. Solutions typically range from 8 percent to 15 percent of added liquid, with some marinated meats containing as much as 30 percent.
Meat experts say it's one thing to pump boneless chicken breasts and thin pork chops, which have little fat or natural flavor and dry out quickly if overcooked. It's another to add as much as 12 percent water to premium cuts like USDA Choice filet mignon and New York strip, or to fatty meats like pork butt.
"It's a terrible trend," says Bruce Aidells, author of a number of meat cookbooks and a former owner of Aidells Sausage Co., which makes gourmet links. "Whenever a meat company can sell you water at the price of meat, they're winning."
Retailers and industry representatives say the added liquid makes even steak taste better.
"We believe it improves the overall quality of the product and gives our customers a better eating experience," says Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk. "Case-ready meat is superior in tenderness and texture and juiciness and flavor to non-enhanced beef cuts."
Kristine Davis of east Cobb County isn't so sure. She buys case-ready meat regularly, including pork with added water and salt. She's noticed a difference only on thin pork chops, which had such a pronounced change in texture that she dug through her trash can to read the label from the discarded package. That's when she learned they were injected.
"It was too wet," she says. "It didn't seem natural. It didn't taste like all the other pork chops."
Like Davis, more than 60 percent of shoppers aren't aware that the meat packages they drop in their carts have changed, according to a 2002 study for the Food Marketing Institute, a supermarket trade group.
Yet odds are they've eaten case-ready meats before, even if they don't realize it. Quick-service restaurants, midscale chains and even a few fine dining ones rely heavily on similar products, called pre-portioned cuts. Like their supermarket counterparts, many are enhanced with added liquid.
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest food retailer, converted to all case-ready in 2001. Much of Wal-Mart's pork, chicken and beef also are enhanced with added liquid.
"We are always looking at ways to provide our customers with quality products at low prices," Burk says. "We thought it was a good fit for us and our customers."
Super Target has adopted case-ready meat as well, including Hormel's line of steaks with up to 12 percent added liquid. Kroger stocks case-ready beef in all of its metro Atlanta division stores, although it still operates full-service meat counters with butchers in some locations. Kroger's beef isn't pumped, but it does sell injected pork under a Kroger label, and Tyson's injected chicken.
As prevalent as case-ready beef is in metro Atlanta, there are some sizable holdouts. Publix intends to keep its meat cutters as a service to shoppers and to distinguish itself from competitors, says spokesman Lee Brunson. Whole Foods and Harry's have bucked the trend by expanding full-service counters and shrinking self-serve cases in the past year.
Still, industry predictions call for growth. About a fourth of all packages of beef sold in 2001 were case-ready. That should grow to one-third by 2005, estimates the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
Economics are driving the trend, industry observers say. Meat cutters are among the highest-paid supermarket employees. Wal-Mart converted to all prepackaged meat just 11 days after a group of meat cutters in a Jacksonville, Texas, store became the chain's only employees to vote to unionize. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher says the union vote didn't influence Wal-Mart's decision to embrace case-ready, saying the chain was already testing the meat products.
Competitors took notice. Wal-Mart's dominance with price-conscious shoppers has other chains examining their costs and looking for ways to pare them down.
"Taking what was once one of the most labor-intensive departments and finding a way to save on labor and replace expensive union meat cutters with a ready-to-package, ready-to-display system for case-ready meats ends up making a big difference in their bottom line," says Dan Murphy, vice president of public affairs for the American Meat Institute, a beef, turkey and pork industry lobbying group.
Differences to note
Depending on the store, you may pay more -- or less -- for case-ready meat, or meat with added solutions. A pound of Hormel USDA Choice filet mignon, with up to 12 percent of an added solution, costs $12.99 at SuperTarget. A pound of USDA Choice filet mignon with no added liquid costs $10.69 at Costco; $16.99 at Publix.
The extra salt in pumped meat shouldn't cause a problem for most healthy Americans, nutritionists say. But for those on reduced-sodium diets, it's another story, particularly if they don't realize they're buying meat with added salt.
A 4-ounce Hormel beef tenderloin steak with a 12 percent salt solution contains more than five times as much sodium as an uninjected steak: 310 milligrams, or 13 percent of a day's allowance, compared with 56 milligrams for the plain steak.
"My parents are both on blood pressure medicine," Davis says. "They don't eat canned food because they don't want the sodium. I wonder if they realize they're getting it [in meat]."
Aside from salt, the most noticeable change is texture. Meat may taste softer, or mushier, because the pumping process causes muscle fibers to unwind, absorb water and swell in size.
"When you compare it to the real thing," Aidells says, "it doesn't have the taste."
Trying for tender
Once a brand name goes on a package of meat, expectations change. The meatpacker or retailer wants to deliver a consistent product. Since the taste and tenderness of beef vary, that can be a challenge. Injecting flavoring solutions evens out differences in taste. Tenderizing meat, either through inserting many small needles or double-edged blades, or tumbling, somewhat like a clothes dryer's action, can make the texture more consistent. Both processes can improve the taste and tenderness of leaner Select beef, the lowest grade typically sold in supermarkets. Choice, the higher grade found in supermarkets, contains more marbling from fat, which adds flavor and moisture.
Mechanically tenderized meats do not have to be labeled. The majority of steaks and roasts packaged for hotel, restaurant and institutional use undergo this process, according to a USDA risk assessment of bacterial contamination in such meat. Some supermarket brands labeled as "tender," but without added liquid, also are mechanically tenderized.
That risk assessment considered whether needle-tenderized steaks were more likely to contain deadly E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria. It called for more research but concluded the risk was only slightly higher: about seven additional illnesses due to tenderization for every billion steak servings.
But in June, an Illinois meatpacker recalled nearly 740,000 pounds of frozen beef, mostly injected steaks, that may have been linked to five E. coli 0157:H7 illnesses, according to a recall notice posted on the USDA Web site. That recall notice recommended cooking similar products to 160 degrees, the same temperature recommended to kill potential E. coli bacteria in ground beef. But Steven Cohen, a USDA spokesman, said the agency has not raised its minimum recommended temperature for cooking steaks and roasts from 145 degrees for medium rare.
The USDA has begun sampling solution-injected beef for E. coli contamination, as it does at ground beef packing plants.
The butcher's tale
From behind the counter of his family's New York butcher shop, where he'd started learning the trade at 8, Ed Cifu watched generations of families come in to buy meat. He held on to the store even when every other independent butcher shop nearby closed. Finally he, too, packed it in. As a supermarket meat cutter, he watched from the back room as shoppers circled empty cases looking for deeply discounted ground beef and rushed meat cutters when they brought out a fresh supply.
Now Cifu is meat coordinator for Whole Foods' Southern region, which includes the Harry's Farmers Markets. He's trying to attract a different customer there, one who wants organic or natural meat with minimal processing, bought from a glass display case where it has rested just a few hours. It's a niche market, but one that he believes is growing.
He's training meat cutters to deliver smiles and cooking advice as well as wield a knife and make sausage. Customers want that contact with a butcher, he believes.
"They want to be reassured about what they're buying," Cifu says. "They don't want to just go to a wall."
Overall trends say otherwise. Independent butchers have been vanishing for decades. Metro Atlanta has just a handful of stand-alone butcher shops left, such as Shields Meat Market in Decatur and Oak Grove Market in central DeKalb County. A recent issue of a supermarket trade publication suggests that grocery-store butchers may soon disappear from the landscape, too.
The Food Marketing Institute, a trade group for supermarkets, surveyed shoppers in 2002 on their attitudes toward case-ready meat. A third said they believe meat packaged at a plant is not as good a quality as meat packaged in the store. Only 6 percent said they believed case-ready meat was of higher quality than store-packed.
E.W. Leonard of Morningside, buying dry-aged steaks, sausage links and Frenched racks of lamb at a Whole Foods store in Midtown, says he hasn't bought meat at a self-serve counter in years. He prefers to speak to the meat cutters at Kroger and Whole Foods, and have them select and wrap his purchases.
"My perception, whether it's correct or not, is it's fresher," Leonard says.
Davis, of east Cobb, says how meat is packaged doesn't matter to her. But what happens to it before it goes into the package does. She has diabetes and shuns marinated meats in case they contain too many carbohydrates that might wreak havoc with blood sugar levels. Now she's got something else to scrutinize, something she hadn't counted on before.
"Maybe," she says, "I need to go read the label."
