14-18 % of what?????

[sisterpine]

went shopping at the local wallyworld this week (i normally am encouraged to leave the shopping to DH). while trying to purchase some beef/pork/chicken type stuff i noticed that each and every package says it contains 14-18 percent of some liquid meant to improve flavor and texture??? i could not read the tiny printing that says what the liquid is so i hunted up a meat dept worker and asked him. he did not know and i dont think he could read either as i gave him a package explaining i could not see it and he said again "i dont know". being concerned for my families health i asked to speak to a manager...one finally showed up and told me (after reading the package) that "it says it is salt, sodium, water and natural flavors". So LOL i asked why they would need to add natural flavors to raw meats? dont they already have their own flavors included in the product? he looked at me like i was nuts! i did discover that ground beef does not have this "stuff" added so I bought ten pounds of ground beef! DH abouat went into shock when i got home, wanted to know where was the pork roast, chicken breasts, and stew beef he had put on the list! Since when was meat not meat? Is it the same at Safeway and Smiths....no hope of real meat? If I bought 10 pounds of pork roast then 1.5 pounds of that would be added liquid enhancers....at 6.98 per pound I DONT THINK SO!!!!

[pcdreams]

welcome to the consumer world of hormone, flavor additives, etc. only way to get real meat is grow it yourself or buy organic..

[sisterpine]

now i know why my neighbor thought my chicken was tough, it was not full of chemicals and hormones and such. She must not have had real food in quite some time i guess!

[anojones]

15% water and salt is cheaper then 15% actual meat, but of course they still charge by the pound. As production meat gets more lean, the flavor is lost due to less fat so they add this brine. It's harder to find unbrined meat but some of the warehouse places still carry it (Sam's, Costco)- but your best bet is to find a butcher or purchase from someone who raises the meat and invest in a freezer (or raise your own).

[Cyngbaeld]

The 'natural flavors' includes MSG. They have to add something because the meat is so nasty and tasteless. I'm so glad we don't have to buy it anymore. We raise our own chicken, will soon have turkeys, sis and I are going to buy a grass fed steer together. I was so fortunate to be able to buy some of Jena's wonderful beef, but that is almost gone. I'm also thinking of getting a calf to put on grass for next year's meat too.

[townmouse]

Alot of times the 'broth' will also have wheat starch in it, meaning that I can't eat it at all. Isn't it odd that a celiac has to avoid....chicken?

We're not the only ones who don't want enhanced chickie dinners. I know this because I can't find chicken locally. Many small farms offer it, but they run out very, very quickly.

(hint, anybody got farm chicken for sale in central Indiana?)

[oz in SC]

Less meat for the same money...it is ALWAYS about getting the most $$$ for the least product.

Went to Lowes and bought a sheet of plywood-it was 15/32'' thick....Perhaps there is another reason but to ME it was so the manufacturer could get an extra sheet out of every 15 sheets...

[whiterock]

There is a brand of chicken here in Texas that they advertise on tv as having NO additives. I get it at HEB, it is usually higher priced but holds up better when cooking.

[mistletoad]

I looked this up last month when our normal chicken started tasting too salty to eat - by law if the package says "Fresh" it cannot include the solution. I haven't tested this yet because I keep remembering how revolting it was, but I have noticed that alot of packages of what looks like fresh chicken do not call themselves "fresh" and very few packages have that word on them now.

[Running Arrow]

Originally Posted by Cyngbaeld

The 'natural flavors' includes MSG. They have to add something because the meat is so nasty and tasteless. I'm so glad we don't have to buy it anymore. We raise our own chicken, will soon have turkeys, sis and I are going to buy a grass fed steer together. I was so fortunate to be able to buy some of Jena's wonderful beef, but that is almost gone. I'm also thinking of getting a calf to put on grass for next year's meat too.

Have you tried Longhorn beef? We put a bull in the freezer each year that did not make the "cut" for breeding stock here at Running Arrow Farm. We usually have several bull calves each season along with heifer calves. All of our stock is naturally bermuda grass fed along with good minerals and some supplemental range cubes as needed. No hormones, steroids, or other noxious additives or implants that those "commercial breeders" use for their slaughter stock.

Went out to eat last week. Had a steak (Angus beef???). Had absolutely no flavor. Guess we're spoiled on the Longhorn meat. About 95-98% naturally lean.

We're in Wellington, TX. (between Shamrock & Childress on US 83) about 60 - 90 minutes west of Clinton. Come out and see our herd of Longhorns and you might even find one that you couldn't live without!

[Thatch]

The problem was even worse in the UK. Most of the chicken was brought in from the Netherlands where it was treated with beef protein powder (introducing a real BSE threat to an otherwise safe product). The protein power was added to aid in the absorption of water during a "tumbling" process where the chicken was thrown into huge tumblers that literally battered the water into the fiber of the meat. Some chicken was found be over 43% water.

Naturally I purchased all my chicken from a local producer. (my place wasn't large enough to produce meat regularly)

This is in no way meant as a "look how much better we have it than them" comment. More a warning of what is to come if we don't throw this trash back in the face of those trying to pawn it off on the American public. Sadly most folks aren't educated enough to know the difference between good and bad food, much less food that has been adulterated to the extremes that meat has in the last 20 years.

J

[GRHE]

I’m afraid this is one of the areas that we continue to have to educate ourselves, and when we raise things for sale to educate our customers about our products. A chicken is not a chicken, and not all packages of burger are created the same. We have all been taught to some degree or another that the price is the bottom line and have slowly been convinced over the years that what the things from the Megamart taste like is what it should taste like. When looking at price, we need to acknowledge the actual product. If a steak is only edible if it has been pumped full of water, salt, and tenderizers and preservatives masquerading as “flavor enhancers”, then it is not a better deal than the properly raised piece of meat that wasn’t injected with water and these other additives, but on the surface costs more. And that is not even including what the stuff does to our bodies.

Last year one of the people who bought one of my turkeys grumbled a bit on price, but he really wanted a fresh turkey so he bought it. He came back and apologized later for grumbling, and signed up to make sure he was first in line to get one this fall. He never knew that a turkey was supposed to actually be good, it had always been treated in his family as a dry, cardboard thing that filled people up so that they didn’t eat too much of the good stuff. He thought that the only real taste that a turkey has was whatever spices and basting you used on it. He asked if I knew that you could cook one without needing to baste it at all and yet it was moist. And he actually could make gravy from the drippings; he didn’t have to use canned broth either. His only complaint was that the meat was so dense that he filled up too fast and ended up with too many leftovers. That is what happens when you’re not paying for 10-15% water that just cooks away.

It’s a challenge to get people to add these things up in their head, heck I forget sometimes myself when I see it every day, but I think we are slowly making strides. The giant agribusiness is here to stay, but if we can keep producing a better product we can at least carve out our own niches and provide properly for our families and ourselves.

RA- I've not had longhorn, but when I can get it I absolutely love bison. I am a big eater myself, and a 16 oz steak seldom comes close to filling me up, but a nice 6-8 oz lean piece of buffalo will fill me up nicely, and then when you look at the nutritional info and find it is less cholesterol than a skinless chicken breast, I start longing for a way to build enough solid fencing to raise bison myself.

Thatch, I’ve heard about the poultry there as well, and I thought it was getting bad here. They will probably try to bring the equipment in here soon too though.

[Kygardengal]

Here in Ky we have a new grocer in town called "E.W. James"...They are a very small chain probably a couple of hundred stores. They advertise and boast about selling only what is called "solution free" meats. It is the closest I can find to farm fresh. The meat is actually dry in it's package. Remember that water weighs 7.5 pounds /gallon. So water weight is significant. I also asked the meat department at Walmart about this solution and they were also "clueless" :no:
As far as beef goes, I only buy "Laura's Lean" organic beef, no hormones etc..
I can only afford the ground beef on sale at $2.50 a pound. But it is worth every penny. Taste like the ground beef I remember as a child that we raised ourselves. The steaks and stuff are too expensive for me so I just do without.
Now, I only get my chicken from "E.W. James".....It is a little more expensive
but not too bad if on sale....I am afraid that people today have no idea what real food is supposed to taste like.

[cloverfarm]

Oh, yeah! That mysterious solution makes me mad too! OUr local mega-mart advertises its chicken and pork as containing "Up to 17 percent" of broth to enhance flavor. I was pretty irked about that. 17 percent is like 1/6th of the package was basically water!

We started raising our own poultry soon after that. We get a whole hog from one of teh neighbors and it's butchered and processed locally.

We have raised our own beef for years. Now I find that restaurant beef tastes stale. Unless its been marinaded in something mysterious!

Glad we don't eat out that often!

Ann

[papaw]

Originally Posted by cloverfarm

Oh, yeah! That mysterious solution makes me mad too! OUr local mega-mart advertises its chicken and pork as containing "Up to 17 percent" of broth to enhance flavor. I was pretty irked about that. 17 percent is like 1/6th of the package was basically water!

We started raising our own poultry soon after that. We get a whole hog from one of teh neighbors and it's butchered and processed locally.

We have raised our own beef for years. Now I find that restaurant beef tastes stale. Unless its been marinaded in something mysterious!

Glad we don't eat out that often!

Ann

Your bottom quote is by Alexander Campbell, he was a former Presbyterian minister who came to America and was very active in the New World Restoration Movement of the Christian Church.

[Helena]

Hubby is a meatcutter with a local food chain..fortunately not Wal-Mart. Anyways. He is shocked at their meat dept. First of all...all of their meat is packaged from a warehouse from a "million" miles away and who knows how old the meat actually is and when it was cut or even when and "what" the animals was killed. The meat "people" in the dept are clerks and not "really" meat cutters so they know about as much about the product or even less than you do because as you found out they don't read the labels even !! So...good luck buying meat in this modern world of ours. Eventually I am afraid most of the stores will have the boxed meat sent in and no "real" meatcutters as it is a trade that is die-ing out in this generation. My husband is 59 years old now and no one younger in meatcutters in his chain either. the companies don't want to train them in an appreciate program like he did many years ago. 3 years of apprentiship and then 2 years working as a journeyman in the dept. I guess they would rather have the packaged meat and not pay the wages of a meatcutter. but what is really ashame is that this generation will not know anything different in the food world. Only microwave foods and meat in a plastic wrapper...what is this world coming too !!...I'm afraid I do know the answer !!

[Momo]

Much of the big box grocery stores are buying meat that has been cut up in a factory. Notice I don't use the word butcher. These jobs are factory jobs, not a profession with training involved. I read an article about how many meat packing plants in Iowa are staffed by "undocumented foreign speaking laborers" Illegal foreigner's don't/can't sue when they get carpal tunnel syndrome from hacking away all day. If you check closely, many of the cuts, especially in pork, are not uniform. I'm afraid the day of the trained professional butcher is rapidly disappearing.

[mysticokra]

The USDA allows up to 9% of the weight of a processed chicken to be "FECAL SOUP". The soup happens when the birds are eviscerated on the assembly line and the intestines washed on down the line. THe processing houses throw in a bunch a chlorine to kill the critters that live in the ****, but it's still there.

Wonder what it would taste like without the MSG?

I would pay more for a farm fresh, free range chicken, prepared by a local farmer I trust, but the government says "that's too dangerous".

[comfortablynumb]

the meat is injected with water to make it weigh more....

wally worl is notorious for its puffalumped meat.

[cloverfarm]

Originally Posted by mysticokra

The USDA allows up to 9% of the weight of a processed chicken to be "FECAL SOUP". The soup happens when the birds are eviscerated on the assembly line and the intestines washed on down the line. THe processing houses throw in a bunch a chlorine to kill the critters that live in the ****, but it's still there.

Wonder what it would taste like without the MSG?

I would pay more for a farm fresh, free range chicken, prepared by a local farmer I trust, but the government says "that's too dangerous".

I can tell you waht one tastes like ... a couple of years ago we bought a whole chicken at the local mega-mart and did not cook it immediately. Refrigerated for a day or two. It was kinda slimy when it came out of the package. And when it was done roasting it just smelled rotten. That's all I can say. LIke road kill in the hot sun :no:

I hated to do this but we tossed the whole thing. A $5 chicken was not worth food poisoning! (My motto is -- EVERYTHING is cheaper than another trip to the ER!)

Another reason why we started raising our own.

Ann