The last year has been one revelation after the other about the kind of food we’re eating. Meat glue, pink slime, and tuna scrape have turned stomachs as each was outed as a way grocery stores and low-end restaurants are charging us more for less. Here’s a guide on what they are, how to avoid them.
Meat Glue: An Australian news outlet outed meat glue last year as a way that cheaper steak houses (and some grocery stores) are getting you to pay $20 for a steak that’s mixed up scrapes of cheaper cuts. (Click for Meat Glue Video). While there’s a number of interesting culinary uses for meat glue—Shrimp Pasta!—there’s a real health risk when you present something as something it isn’t—here it’s that someone who orders there steak with any pink in it has a much higher risk of food poisoning.
Avoid Meat Glue: Be careful where you buy your steak from, and if you’re dining at a steakhouse order things well done.
Pink Slime: It’s not just steaks that are getting cheapened: ground beef from your grocery store may be cut with “pink slime”: ammonia laced remnants of beef chemically washed off the bones. While I think it’s great we use all the parts of a cow, why can’t these bones and meat bits be used for beef stock instead? With the natural, organic health food trend continuing to gain popularity, and grocery store beef (ground in particular) already pumped with red food dye, adding a bit of ammonia isn’t going to improve sales once you’re caught.
Avoid Pink Slime: Grind your own meat! It’s the safest way to eat burgers slightly pink, and you’ll consume a lot less dye (and it will give you more moisture!). If you don’t have a food processor, a meat grinder works just as well.
Tuna Scrape: Tuna scrape, the served-raw fish equivalent of pink slime, is continuing to spread Salmonella poisoning to sushi lovers across the US. Grocery store tuna rolls and cheap restaurants are using it to cut cost on sushi—but with the same surface-area bacterial concerns of meat glue, a bit of Salmonella contamination has quickly spread through many distributors and caused over 200 (and growing) cases of reported food poisoning.
Avoid Tuna Scrape: Don’t buy sushi from the grocery store or cheaper restaurants, or at least avoid any rolls with tuna in them.
If you’re worried about food poisoning symptoms after a restaurant meal, go home and eat some yogurt or take a probiotic. And don’t forget to support your immune system regularly with MesoSilver!
Has your grocery store started advertising they are meat glue/pink slime free? Have you switched to a local butcher for buying meat?
