DailyDirt: Sketchy Meats For Sale

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

A lot of vegetarians were likely inspired by The Jungle (the novel about the meat packing industry), but a lot has changed in the field of meat since the early 1900s. However, transparency about how animals are treated before they're served onto dinner plates could perhaps use a little more work. Here are just a few recent stories that are starting to gross out some meat-eating Americans.

• Gerald Zimstein coined the term "pink slime" and the substance has been in the news because of its "yuck" factor. But pink slime isn't particularly unhealthy -- or at least it hasn't been proven so (yet?). [url]
• Tuna scrape is almost like hamburger meat, and its use in sushi could become another kind of pink slime issue. So be careful with those spicy tuna rolls... [url]
• The use of antibiotics in food production might be getting out of hand, but fortunately, we can reduce antibiotics in the meat industry by using vaccines and other techniques. The concern is that we're slowly creating a world of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. [url]
• The enzyme transglutaminase is also known as "meat glue" -- and creating frankenstein steaks from cheap cuts of meat. While transglutaminase is generally safe and naturally occurring, the danger of using it comes from gluing together pieces of meat that may have bacteria contamination -- and when the glued-together meat is merely seared on the outside, the rare inside isn't properly cooked (and not sterile like the inner part of a single piece of meat). [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: antibiotics, food, hamburgers, meat, meat glue, pink slime, sushi, the jungle, transglutaminase, tuna scrape