here are my two cents on the situation. What i feel is that if we can afford it we should prefer organic or local meat. This puts less fatigue on our environment and our bodies. The so called preservatives should be allowed in meat packaging as long as they are not harmful. The argument by one congressman that the discoloration did not happen is really dumb because i do not feel that something should be ridiculed just because its doing the work that it is supposed to do. What should be emphasized is that the dates on the packaging are temper proof so that no one is fooled into buying something that is not fresh

I can’t believe you both have relatives that worked in poultry processing plants. Reminds me of the old saying about watching sausage get made.

JD: So basically they were holding training sessions, that probably were required, to make sure employees knew about safety, sanitation, etc. Then they would pressure them to ignore what they were taught if they wanted to keep their jobs? This is a family friendly site, so I can’t really say what I think about that!

Anna: That is a good point about the color. I think the turn to red is instant upon contact with air, so it might not indicate anything about the freshness of the meat. Linda Prout has commented on a couple of posts and indicated that grass Finnish grass fed meat and dairy are best. I am going to look at her site and a couple others to learn more about that.

-Will

Her last job there was a promotion to food safety inspector and she went through extensive training for the job and she learned a lot of stuff that made her more comfortable with the safety guidelines. However, when she started her actual job on the line she found out that if she flagged stuff as unsafe or obeyed about 90% of the rules she was taught, her job would be in jeopardy. That was the catalyst for her eschewing turkey and leaving the industry.

What I can find on it indicates that carbon dioxide greatly slows down the loss of water from meat. As one of the companies championing the use of CO2 says:

“The CO2 Technologies system releases H2O and CO2 into the refrigerated environment. Lean meat is about 75% water. Loss of water is important because it is economically equivalent to the loss of meat. By raising the relative humidity in the case, the dehydration that occurs is reduced. Food scientists agree that meat cuts lose their color prematurely relative to their wholesomeness, and by modifying the air with the introduction of carbon dioxide to displace oxygen, our CO2 Technologies system will stop this premature discoloration.”

-Will

Sarcasm on)They are afraid of the “naive” consumer picking up a package of meat labeled as being preserved by carbon dioxide and saying “what the…, I’m not buying that! (sarcasm off)

This same issue comes up with the irradiation of meat. Even though the actual process may not be dangerous to the consumer eating the meat, the meat industry does not want the radiation word on their packages. In this case also they are afraid of that same “naive” consumer being able to make a choice as to what they want to bring home to their family.

-Will