TRUTHstreammedia
Published on Nov 19, 2013
(Truthstream
Media) On top of all the other troubling ingredients found in foods
and/or used in its production and cultivation, there is apparently also
carbon monoxide to be concerned about. Apparently the FDA -- our loving
watchdogs -- have ok'd its use as a color preservative in meats, as it
apparently helps keep us appearances for as much as 20 days. The carbon
monoxide (known for its deadly tail pipe exhaust and as a carcinogen in
cigarette smoke) is used to give fish and meat a fresh "red" look to
appeal to buyers. However, some have warned this can also give spoiled
or less-than-fresh foods the same glossy red-appearance -- that is,
until consumers come home to a rotten surprise.
Consumer groups
and a natural flavor, color and extract company named Kalsec have
challenged the use of carbon monoxide, arguing that while it can keep
meat appealing for nearly three weeks while unwrapped meat is remains
attractive for only a few, it poses a problem, claiming that consumers
might be 'fooled into buying spoiled or old meat.'
"The gas not only keeps meat red while on the shelf but after it's spoiled."
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/... http://www.examiner.com/article/fda-a...
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By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
A small company in Kalamazoo, Mich., has the meat industry on the run over how the meat you buy is packaged.
Kalsec
has waged a two-year fight and spent $800,000 to battle food regulators
and meat producers over a fledgling practice of packaging fresh meat
with a harmless dose of carbon monoxide.
The
gas keeps meat an appealing red for more than 20 days — about twice as
long as other popular packaging and far longer than the few days
unwrapped meat stays red in a butcher's case.
The
red color is the problem, say Kalsec, consumer groups and several
lawmakers. The gas not only keeps meat red while on the shelf but after
it's spoiled.
They say consumers — who
consider color when picking meat — will be fooled into buying spoiled or
old meat and not smell trouble until they open the package at home.
The
packaging presents "serious consumer deception and food-safety risks,"
Kalsec says in a filing to the Food and Drug Administration. It wants
the practice banned.
The meat industry
disputes Kalsec's claims and says it is running a "baseless" scare
campaign because carbon monoxide packaging would obliterate a rival
Kalsec product.
A family-run firm with 300
employees, Kalsec sells natural colorings, spices and herbs. One of its
products is a rosemary extract that meat processors use in packaging
that keeps meat a nice red for about half as long as the carbon
monoxide-infused packaging.
When Kalsec saw
major meat companies switch to carbon monoxide, "It started an attack
campaign," says Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute, who says
Kalsec's "arguments are hollow."
The meat
industry says shoppers are tipped off to bad meat by bulging packages in
stores and expired use-or-freeze-by dates. By keeping meat
fresh-looking longer, the industry hopes to save millions of dollars a
year by selling meat that consumers would have shunned before because of
poor color.
Carbon monoxide packaging is "not
a public health issue," says Michael Osterholm, a public health
official at the University of Minnesota who often criticizes foodmakers
for poor food-safety controls.
Osterholm, who
also consults for food companies Fresh Express and Hormel Foods, says
he's never heard of a food-borne illness outbreak tied to spoiled meat,
in part because bacteria such as E. coli don't thrive in spoiled meat
because spoilage bacteria out-compete them for nutrients. "There are
huge issues in food safety right now, and this isn't one of them."
Yet
the issue is playing big on Capitol Hill. Two Democrats from Kalsec's
home state, Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak, have taken up the matter
as part of a wide-ranging assault on the government's food-safety
record.
Their committee, the Energy and
Commerce Committee, has not only held two food-safety hearings this year
in which the issue was discussed, but they've also sent letters to meat
companies and grocers challenging the use of carbon monoxide packaging.
Almost one by one, the letter-getters have folded.
Pages of questions
In June, the legislators wrote Safeway
(SWY),
noting that the company, "unlike most other supermarket chains," sold
fresh meat packaged in a way to "alter the color of the meat to make it
appear fresh and wholesome indefinitely."
The
letter then posed pages of questions for Safeway, including how it
"assures that consumers, particularly those of declining eyesight, can
read the use-or-freeze-by dates on packages."
In
its response a month later, Safeway said it would drop the packaging,
explaining the committee's concerns may have "raised concerns with
customers who do not have the benefit of the background on this
process."
Tyson Foods
(TSN) in August curtailed use of the packaging after it, too, got a letter. Tyson cited "lack of customer demand."
Giant
Food, a Maryland-based chain, dropped it this month. It said, "Some
customers found the retention of the red color … to be confusing."
Kroger and Publix have also shunned the packaging.
But Hormel
(HRL),
one of the technology's biggest backers along with foodmaker Cargill,
says it's put out 120 million packages of product using carbon monoxide
and has a consumer complaint ratio that rivals "the Maytag repairman,"
Hormel Vice President Phil Minerich said Tuesday in a hearing before the
House Committee on Agriculture.
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Christy Maloney
Healthy eating
is a loosely defined trend in itself these days. There are many
variations on what “healthy” means and will likely differ among each
person asked. While strolling through the supermarket, the average
person would likely agree that, yes, eating a nice piece of baked
tilapia with vegetables would be a healthy meal.
Until a person
actually scans the ingredients list of anything, they never know exactly
what they will be ingesting. Imagine the surprise when, on that nice,
fresh-appearing tilapia, it is discovered that
carbon monoxide is the ingredient that helps to “preserve color.”
Say
what? People install carbon monoxide detectors in their homes to
prevent sudden death from the colorless, odorless, tasteless gas. Carbon
monoxide is emitted primarily through things such as automobiles and
factories and generally poses little immediate threat when released in
an open space.
Read More Here
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