How meat is pumped up The topic of the next editorial article was the injection procedure - the introduction through the needles of a special solution that increases the volume of meat. Alexy Izmailov, Deputy General Director of one of the largest domestic companies producing those same mixtures for injection, says. Alexey reassured, saying that “meat processing is one of the most tightly controlled branches of the food industry, and if something in the components of the solution was dangerous, it would have been banned long ago.” - Do you yourself eat meat pumped with such a solution? Of course. You will understand that now you can only get unseasoned meat from your grandmother in the village. Everything else, including the markets, is already pumped up. Both domestic production and imported. What is included in this solution? What you call a "solution" is properly called a brine. They are injected with meat not only so that it increases in volume. More precisely, not so much for this. This mixture has two sides - technological and economic. From the technological side, brine is a complex set of additives, each of which has its own purpose. For example, the composition of a typical brine used to inject meat: stabilizers (E 450, E 451), gelling agent (E 407), dextrose, flavor and aroma enhancer (E 621), antioxidant (E 301), thickener (E 415), extracts spices. Stabilizers are phosphates that stabilize the PH (acidity level). In meat, this parameter varies greatly from batch to batch, since it strongly depends on what the cows and pigs ate in the last weeks of their lives. If the acidity is not stabilized, the meat will be extremely dry and will not retain moisture. The gelling agent is the same carrageenan, an extract from seaweed. Everyone has probably come across the fact that algae, which seem large and dense in water, dry up and become almost weightless when it hits land. This property is used here - one part of carrageenan powder can take 25-40 parts of water, forming a gel. This additive is introduced into the composition of the brine in order for the product to have an elastic, “rubber” consistency. Dextrose is the same as glucose, sugar. Introduced in small quantities for taste. Flavor and aroma enhancer - monosodium glutamate. Well, for what it is needed is quite understandable. Antioxidant - is introduced so that the meat does not lose color and is stored longer. The thickener, usually guar gum (powder from the fruit of the guar tree growing in India), has similar properties to carrageenans and is used in diapers and pads. It is added to improve consistency and additional moisture binding. Spice extracts - natural concentrated extracts, added to give a flavor note. As an antioxidant, ordinary ascorbic acid or its derivatives, sodium ascorbate, are used. This is what concerns the technological side of the issue. I repeat: with the help of these additives, we form the consistency of the meat product, juiciness, color and taste. Well, the economic side is that some of these additives allow you to keep the water pumped into the meat. The cost price and, as a result, the price of the product naturally depend on the amount of this water. Technologists at enterprises do not inject products out of natural anger, but for one simple reason - if this is not done, then firstly, the meat will be dry and fresh, and in a couple of days it will acquire a characteristic weathered color. Well, and secondly, because it will be very expensive and not every consumer will be able to call him. So this is a forced measure, for which we ourselves vote with our wallets. - And how much water is added to the meat? If we take the amount of moisture introduced, we can make the following gradation (not by meat, but by the finished product - a delicacy like ham or carbonade): Expensive "delicacy" (beef, pork) - moisture is injected up to 30% by weight of meat. Middle segment - 35-50% by weight of meat Budget segment - 60-80% moisture is introduced. Due to the structure of poultry meat, it is impossible to inject more than 25-30% moisture into chicken delicacies. Chopped hams in a polyamide casing can be filled with more than 80% water. That's the kind of economy. - That is, when buying products of the budget segment, as you called it, people get more water and less nutrients with them, less amino acids, vitamins, what a person actually eats meat for? I want to tell you, as a marketer with many years of experience, this is what: amino acids and vitamins in meat are eaten only by bodybuilders and other extreme radicals. A normal person eats meat in order to feel the taste of meat, get the feeling of chewing meat, feel full, and be aware of the fact that he has eaten meat. And how much something is there - water or proteins, he does not really care. If you recalculate in grams of protein per ruble, then it turns out about the same what to eat - better and more expensive or cheaper but with water. People are fully aware of this, but they themselves play this game, precisely because they expect from food what I said, and not amino acids with proteins.
NTV is a well-known horror story of the people. But… is this channel lying? Or simply chooses the most terrible for us among the whole mass of information? It seems that so...Somehow a program was shown that all the meat sold was pumped up with special translucent, whitish liquids that retain moisture ...
Correspondents of the site +#@"; asked the deputy general director of the very enterprise that produces these liquids, what kind of rubbish he injects into our products ...
To be honest, I don’t fucking believe in the sincerity of this Alexei Izmailov. To a direct question whether he himself eats such meat, he replied that, of course, he does. And then - they say, you need to understand what is real. now you can only get non-stuffed meat from a grandmother in the village ...
If he understands that the liquid pumped by him is intended mainly to improve the presentation and increase the period of sale of the product, and not to make this product really better, he is not an idiot to eat it after injection ... And, of course, not an idiot to admit that “undiluted” meat comes to him :)
Do you yourself eat meat pumped with such a solution?
Of course. You will understand that now you can only get unseasoned meat from your grandmother in the village. Everything else, including the markets, is already pumped up. Both domestic production and imported.
What is included in this solution?
What you call a "solution" is properly called a brine. They are injected with meat not only so that it increases in volume. More precisely, not so much for this. This mixture has two sides - technological and economic.
From the technological side, brine is a complex set of additives, each of which has its own purpose. For example, the composition of a typical brine used to inject meat: stabilizers (E 450, E 451), gelling agent (E 407), dextrose, flavor and aroma enhancer (E 621), antioxidant (E 301), thickener (E 415), extracts spices.
Stabilizers are phosphates that stabilize the PH (acidity level). In meat, this parameter varies greatly from batch to batch, since it strongly depends on what the cows and pigs ate in the last weeks of their lives. If the acidity is not stabilized, the meat will be extremely dry and will not retain moisture.
The gelling agent is the same carrageenan, an extract from seaweed. Everyone has probably come across the fact that algae, which seem large and dense in water, dry up and become almost weightless when it hits land. This property is used here - one part of carrageenan powder can take 25-40 parts of water, forming a gel. This additive is introduced into the composition of the brine in order for the product to have an elastic, “rubber” consistency.
Dextrose is the same as glucose, sugar. Introduced in small quantities for taste.
Flavor and aroma enhancer - monosodium glutamate. Well, for what it is needed is quite understandable.
Antioxidant - is introduced so that the meat does not lose color and is stored longer.
The thickener, usually guar gum (powder from the fruit of the guar tree growing in India), has similar properties to carrageenans and is used in diapers and pads. It is added to improve consistency and additional moisture binding.Spice extracts - natural concentrated extracts, added to give a flavor note. As an antioxidant, ordinary ascorbic acid or its derivatives, sodium ascorbate, are used.
This is what concerns the technological side of the issue. I repeat: with the help of these additives, we form the consistency of the meat product, juiciness, color and taste.
Well, the economic side is that some of these additives allow you to keep the water pumped into the meat. The cost price and, as a result, the price of the product naturally depend on the amount of this water. Technologists at enterprises do not inject products out of natural anger, but for one simple reason - if this is not done, then firstly, the meat will be dry and fresh, and in a couple of days it will acquire a characteristic weathered color. Well, and secondly, because it will be very expensive and not every consumer will be able to call him. So this is a forced measure, for which we ourselves vote with our wallets.
And how much water is added to the meat?
If we take the amount of moisture introduced, we can make the following gradation (not by meat, but by the finished product - a delicacy product such as ham or carbonade):
Expensive "delicacy" (beef, pork) - moisture is injected up to 30% of the mass of meat.
Middle segment - 35-50% by weight of meat
Budget segment - 60-80% moisture is introduced.
Due to the structure of poultry meat, it is impossible to inject more than 25-30% moisture into chicken delicacies.
Chopped hams in a polyamide casing can be filled with more than 80% water.
That's the kind of economy.That is, when buying products of the budget segment, as you called it, people get more water and less nutrients with them, less amino acids, vitamins, for what a person actually eats meat?
I want to tell you, as a marketer with many years of experience, this is what: amino acids and vitamins in meat are eaten only by bodybuilders and other extreme radicals. A normal person eats meat in order to feel the taste of meat, get the feeling of chewing meat, feel full, and be aware of the fact that he has eaten meat. And how much something is there - water or proteins, he does not really care. If you recalculate in grams of protein per ruble, then it turns out about the same what to eat - better and more expensive or cheaper but with water. People are fully aware of this, but they themselves play this game, precisely because they expect from food what I said, and not amino acids with proteins.
You may have heard that many manufacturers pump broiler carcasses with various chemicals to make them weigh more, look better, and generally be in demand. An employee of "Magnet" showed everyone how this happens.
The technologist explained that this is a new production technology. "We have a new production technology, now we are pumping chicken / meat," he said.
Pay attention to the composition. This substance contains the stabilizer E452, which is used in paint and detergents, and many other bad things. According to the Register of Rospotrebnadzor, this powder is used as a thickener, stabilizer in the form of a brine for injection, massaging in the production of ham sausages, meat delicacies, semi-finished meat products, and chicken. It contains Toxic elements (mg/kg, no more): lead 2.0, arsenic 3.0, cadmium 1.0, mercury 1.0.
This powder is kneaded in the ratio of 45g of powder / 40g of salt / 300g of water.
After the gel is ready, they need to pump the chicken through a special syringe.
A thin, ordinary chicken. The gel is injected into the muscles, and thus gives the carcass volume.
A plump carcass, which in nature cannot exist by definition. After pumping, the chicken is marinated in spices and oil, and sent to the grill.
Pump up the chicken with a special syringe to increase the weight:
The gel turns into something like silicone, and is somewhat similar to chicken fat.
This transparent jelly is not chicken juice, but the same gel that was pumped into the carcass.
After the chicken is ready, it is sent for sale.
Frozen chicken - 99% pumped. In a chilled chicken, signs of pumping are: too thick wings and drumsticks. If the breast fillet is thicker than a finger thick, then it is also almost certainly stuffed with chemicals. Another feature is punctures. Pay attention to the skin of the chicken. If the chicken is chipped, there will be holes on it.
Now let's look at the path of the chicken from the egg to your table.
poultry farm
Growing chicken in a poultry farm 45 days, while in its natural habitat it will need about half a year to reach adult size. Feel the difference? Four and a half months.
Why does a chicken grow so fast in a factory? Everything is simple. growth hormones.
“Chickens are injected with antibiotics, they are fed a lot (including growth hormones), but still they cannot gain such weight. When the chicken is underweight, they (the broiler) are intensively given hormones. instead of a liver, a viscous mass. That is, the liver is completely killed", - said one of the workers of the poultry farm in our country.
What kind of meat we eat and whether there are any foreign substances, we do not always know. The Vecherny Grodno newspaper found out whether there were additives, in particular water, in the pork tenderloin.
On price tags in company stores, customers are openly informed that it is injected with saline. This means that with the help of special equipment it was “pumped up” with an additive. In the meat rows at the bazaar, sellers claim that they did not do any injections. But buyers have doubts.
The Evening Grodno newspaper conducted an experiment that proved that 40 grams of water can be injected into a piece of raw pork weighing 400 grams with a simple disposable syringe. This increases the weight and, accordingly, the price. The reason for the "research" was the appeal of the reader Pavel Gennadievich from Ozer. With relatives, he went to the market for a barbecue neck.
"Looks like the meat is squirted with water, he says. - I was alerted by the wet counters, the liquid flowed directly onto the floor. From the three-kilogram piece that I bought, 160 grams of water gradually leaked out. I myself saw punctures on a cut of meat: there are 2-3 punctures in a piece. The guests refused to eat such a barbecue. What happens, we are being deceived?
It turned out that the market does not check meat “for moisture”. The laboratory of the Grodno Center for Standardization, Metrology and Certification reported that the moisture index in raw meat is not standardized - there are no such standards.
Svetlana Savko, veterinarian of the laboratory of veterinary and sanitary examination at the Central Market (Grodno), says: “Buyers did not contact us with complaints that meat was allegedly injected with water. The liquid that you see on the shelves is natural juice. Our laboratory checks each batch for trichinosis, for established indicators, but we do not determine the mass fraction of moisture.”
Result: It is difficult to prove that water is added to meat to increase its weight. It turned out that the laboratories and the sanitation station do not control whether there is excess liquid in the product. But in a frying pan, the syringed product behaves like this: it splashes, when frying, it decreases in volume more than fresh meat from the village. Moisture of a pale pink color constantly oozes from a raw piece, while a quality product at first releases the remnants of blood, then dries up.
In many factories and even small factories, meat is injected - injection of water or other substances using special equipment. This is done in order to kill bacteria and other harmful microorganisms, as well as to give the product a richer taste thanks to spices and brine. However, when squirting, the mass increases. Often sprayed with water with a weak saline solution, this allows you to increase the weight of the product up to 20%, but water tends to spread after a while, so solutions based on substances that create a structure close to natural are used.
As it turned out, the stuffed meat is supplied to the shops of the city, for example, by the Volkovysk Meat Processing Plant. Information on the price tags informs the buyer about it. The seller in one of the company stores reported that the meat contains saline. The chief technologist of the enterprise, Ivan Lupish, did not reveal the secrets of injection in a telephone conversation. He only reported that the liquid additive was agreed with the Ministry of Health and does not harm the health of the consumer.
The chef of the cafe-restaurant Roman Melnikov tells how you can recognize such meat: “In my practice, there was meat injected with both water and saline. You can recognize it visually: the meat is more watery, the color is too pale, unappetizing. During defrosting, a large percentage of “defrost” is liquid, little product remains. Salt solution met not only in pork, but also in chicken breasts.
Loading...