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Dr. Mercola
December 04 2007

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Food Industry Defends Carbon Monoxide Use in Meat

U.S. lawmakers have begun to criticize the practice of adding carbon monoxide to meat in order to stabilize its color and keep it looking fresh longer.

The process, they said, misleads consumers by making the products appear safer than they are, and puts people at risk of eating spoiled meat.

Two of the United States’ largest meat processors, however, defended the packaging technique, maintaining that it is safe. Several food giants have said they support a warning label being added to meat that has been treated with carbon monoxide, or a label encouraging consumers to depend on the “use by” or “freeze by” date rather than the meat’s color to determine its safety.

Officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Agriculture Department, who said they believe the carbon monoxide practice is safe, say the issue is not a public health priority.

Consumer groups, meanwhile, have petitioned the FDA to withdraw its approval of sealed packaging that uses more carbon monoxide -- 0.4 percent -- than exists in air, saying the practice makes it difficult for consumers to gauge product safety.

Sources:


Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The process of treating meat with carbon monoxide to make it appear red and fresh, when it would otherwise appear brown, is clearly a smoke and mirrors tactic to increase profits for the food industry.

The meat industry, of course, claimed that sellers were throwing away good meat when it became slightly brown. To circumvent this “waste of money” they created “modified atmosphere packaged meats.”

This is still a relatively new process, having been approved by the U.S. Agriculture Department in 2004 -- yet even then it was not without controversy.

The FDA allowed the process to be used under the “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) designation, which means the FDA conducted no research of its own and instead relied on the companies to confirm product safety.

Well, when you let foxes guard the henhouse, mysterious things happen, as they did when this carbon monoxide process was safety tested.

The safety tests were conducted by Cargill and Hormel Foods, who were also promoting the process. The companies’ own scientists questioned their study results because microbial counts on under-refrigerated meats went down instead of up, as would be expected. Other indicators of spoilage increased, however, which suggested there had been an error in the tests.

A Washington Post article recently revealed that these mysterious test results did not go unnoticed. As written in the Washington Post:

"Believe me, we are also puzzled by the data," a Hormel employee wrote in a May 2004 e-mail, marked CONFIDENTIAL, to a colleague at Cargill. "Please let me know if you see any other funny data … " he wrote later. "Quite honestly, this test seemed to raise more questions than what it answered."

This apparently was not concerning to officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They gave the process their seal of approval, and the FDA, acting on the USDA’s recommendation, followed suit.

The end result is that now you are left with highly questionable meat being sold in supermarkets across the United States. Meat that is two years old will even appear fresh if it’s treated with carbon monoxide. And even though meat packages contain “use by” dates, you are depending on an honest supermarket staff to not alter these dates on “fresh-looking” meat packages.

How Can You Tell if Your Meat is Fresh?

In a small step in the right direction, Giant Food, Stop & Shop and Safeway stores have announced that they will no longer sell carbon-monoxide-treated meat, and Tyson Foods also said they would stop using the process.

However, as some Vital Votes readers have pointed out, the best way to get fresh meat remains to shop locally and get to know the farmer. This is the only real way to know if your food is fresh and grown with integrity.

To find sources of fresh, naturally grown food near you, browse through these sustainable agricultural groups in your area. Many of them even hold extremely informative annual meetings where you can meet local farmers.


Related Links:

  How You are Being Fooled at the Meat Counter

  Discover How Your Beef is Really Raised

  The Dangers of Processed Meats




Comment on This Article
Comment on This Article Community Comments (29)
 
 
Posted On Nov 16, 2007
USDA and FDA are in the pockets of collective Big Meat.

There are many known cancer causing substances used in the packaging of meat approved, beyond carbon monoxide, including but not limited to phosphates, nitrites, nitrates, fake red 40 and other artificial colors, cancer causing high intensity sweeteners, chemically and gmo based corn based modified starches, chemically derived colloids and gums, refined sugars,
chemical anti oxidants, other gases, chemically based anti racidifiers, MSG, and the list is very long.

The Solution? Only buy locally grown free range organic and grass fed product.

Uncle Russ

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Russ Bianchi
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Posted On Nov 19, 2007
Yes sir Russ--you continue to hit the nail squarly on the head and keep driving the point home. Must be that Kentucky bourbon.

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Posted On Dec 04, 2007

The only meat I trust is wild caught red salmon canned in Alaska where wild is the only thing legal.  Farm raised fish is always contaminated and unsafe.  All scaleless fish and crustasions are not safe to eat as is pork regardless of how it is raised.  At 73, I enjoy perfect health largely because I have avoided unhealthy meat, contaminated water, non-food and junk food of all kinds for a great many years.  I can still dance super fast all evening, lift heavy weights at the gym and sprint like a jack rabbit without ill effects.  I was exposed to highly beneficial soil micro organisms while playing daily in the dirt and hunting/fishing in the woods as a child.  I now take them in fairly pricey capsule form and consider them to be crucial to my continued good health.  Dr. Rubin Jordan has much to say on this subject in his latest book.

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Colin Cody
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MRL
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Posted On Dec 04, 2007

Colin Cody, I just read that book! Did you notice a big improvement in your health after introducing soil organisms? How pricey are they?...

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Posted On Dec 15, 2007

C C, great to hear your health story! What an example for the rest of us! Keep up the good work!

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Posted On Nov 20, 2007
This news was on tv recently.  Did anyone see the meat that had been sprayed with carbon monoxide two years ago and still looks as fresh today as it did two years ago when it was packaged?  Ewwww!!!!!!!!

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Sheila C
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Posted On Nov 19, 2007
This is the same type of reasoning that I see when reading about the economic problems caused by housing woes.  It's all about the almighty dollar - THEY, those highly paid executives of companies, whether they be meat processing companies, mortgage companies, realtors, are so concerned about making the buck NOW, that what is bound to happen in the future is futile when it comes to their decision.  No one is interested anymore in even hearing about the consequences of what THEY are about to do.

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Posted On Nov 19, 2007
THEY --write, edit, publish and distrubute their own HOW-TO books for profit.

THEY --give me CIC syndrome-- C ramps- I n- C olon!

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Posted On Nov 19, 2007
The meat industry should be required to label everything just like the personal care industry.

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Posted On Nov 19, 2007
Personal care or cosmetic still openly falsifies huge amounts of ingredients and makes up phony non CFR compliant names to hide the real chemical or ingredient based, excipients, bulking agents and even active components and there is little if any FDA enforcement.

Just read the labels, it's a complete sick joke.

Uncle Russ

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