Quote:
Originally Posted by ChocolateGypsy
I agree with everything you wrote except the above. The reason for brown meat in the middle of the ground beef is that the blood had oxidized at some point before packaging with gas. But even freshly ground,lovely red/pink meat can be contaminated. You won't normally see or smell the bacteria that causes food borne illness.
And then, there's this organism called "listeria" that likes it's food cooked -- it's found in hot dogs and cold cuts.
|
It takes a processing machine to inject gas into the package prior to sealing.
Next to the cutters station in the meat room of MB is a roll of cling wrap and a hot plate (the same setup is in the produce dept. and the dairy dept. for the specialty cheeses that are also cut on site). The hamburg (and all the other meats cut on site) are put into the foam plate. A piece of cling wrap is started off the roll and wrapped around the product, stretched tight will all edges bundled to the bottom. The package is then pressed into the hot plate to seal the item. It is them weighed, priced and set for the retail case.
The rolls of wrap are used by all three departments, same case, same label and packaged in the same manner that any product used in food prep or distribution would be.
There is no gas injected into the air space of fresh ground beef or meat cuts. All meat will begin to turn brown at the same rate no matter if it came from the MB meat room, The Whining Butcher meat room, the Meat House meat room or from my fathers meat room from cattle that we raise ourselves.
40 years ago when you went to the butcher to pick up your meats, they would react the same way if left to oxygen exposure. The process would be slowed compared to today, due to the aging process that has seen a decline in recent years. The loss of weight and space required for proper aging is out of the reach of most large scale operations, as does the comsumer demand for the lowest price.
The lowest price gets you a product that has not reached it full potential for quality and flavor.
The organizations that use gas to keep the color in their meats are the organizations that do not have a meat room on site and are looking to maximize the amount of time it can spend on the shelf or in transport. Think Walmart, Target, quite a few Hannaford's and a few other smaller groups that are just filling from a cooler out back.
If you are unsure of whether you local grocery cuts their own meats or burg. Ask a member of the meat department to custom cut you a cut of your choice, that is available on the shelf. Just be aware that after 6 there is not a cutter on staff (at the MB anyway), just part-timers keeping the stock full.