There seems to be no end to the short cuts and deceptions that manufacturers will undergo in order to increase their profits. Last month, I wrote a post on the controversy over “pink slime,” and now this month a new meat scandal has surfaced. This one has to do with “Meat Glue.”
The technical name is transglutaminase enzyme (TG), and it’s considered a GRAS (“Generally Recognized As Safe”) food additive. It’s a naturally occurring enzyme in plants, animals, and bacteria, and it can serve many useful purposes in cooking. It binds proteins together, making it a go-to ingredient to improve the texture of hot dogs and sausages; it gets used in making yogurts and milks creamier; it’s even used to make pasta noodles firmer.
So far, not sounding like a big deal. What is a problem is that some restaurants have been discovered to be taking the properties of TG a step too far, using it to bind together cheap cuts of meats into a product that is completely indistinguishable from a cut of prime steak, thereby duping their customers into believing that they’re buying filet Mignon when actually it is just stew meat that has been glued together.
While the deception alone is troublesome, the bigger problem, honestly, comes from a food safety point of view. As the utilizers of meat glue have been quick to point out, the enzyme is entirely safe and has been used in the manufacturing industry for decades. True, but not the issue. So here’s what is:
When you are working with a piece of beef, generally speaking, any contaminants that have become in contact with the meat will be sitting on the surface of the product. The interior of the cut is safe. This is why individuals can order their steaks rare with some degree of security that they will not contract a food-borne illness. The bacteria on the outside have been killed during cooking, and the inside is expected to be free of bacteria anyway.
So think about stew beef. Lots of small pieces of beef each with a lot of surface area that could be harboring bacteria. When we then make a ball out of this stew meat, some of the pieces that were originally on the outside of the little pieces are now tucked inside a larger piece. If that new steak is ordered rare, then there’s a good chance that the bacteria on the inside will still be active and there we have a food-borne illness in the making.
While the story may have broken in the US, there’s honestly no telling whether meat glue is used for the same purpose in Canadian restaurants. There’s certainly no requirement to list it on the ingredient list! The only advice I have to offer: if you’re unsure about the restaurant, make sure you’re steak is cooked well-done.
That, and vegetarianism is looking better and better all the time.
Until next time!
P.S. If you’re interested, here’s a link to a video story on meat glue. You can see exactly what it looks like and how it works.
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