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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Green Living / Why Supermarket Meat is Always (Unnaturally) Red

Why Supermarket Meat is Always (Unnaturally) Red

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Bright Red Supermarket Meat
  • Carbon Monoxide Keeps Meat Red Even if It's Spoiled
  • Is Carbon Monoxide Dangerous if Ingested?
  • Where to Find Healthy Grassfed Meats
  • References

ungassed vs gassed meat

Observation can be a very important tool when one embarks on the modern adventure known as supermarket shopping. Have you ever stopped to notice how everything in a supermarket and chain healthfood stores is so perfectly in its place, colorful and alluring? Even at the meat counter where variation should exist, every single package of supermarket meat is uniformly bright red.

If you’ve ever taken someone from a foreign country into a supermarket in the United States for the very first time, you know the kind of reaction I’m talking about.

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Shock and Awe.

But things aren’t always as they appear, are they?

Bright Red Supermarket Meat

Case in point. Have you ever wondered why the supermarket meat display case is always bright red? Could it be that every package on display was freshly butchered that day?

If you’ve talked to a supermarket meat manager before or have a butcher in the family, you know this is simply not the case. While some new cuts are put out every day, many of the meat packages have been sitting in the display case for two, three, four days or even longer.

Most consumers never stop to wonder about this, but anyone who has ever purchased meat from a small farm or a local butcher knows that this is not a natural occurrence. Once meat becomes exposed to air, oxidation begins which gradually turns the red color of the meat to a more unappetizing brown or grey color within just a few days.

This never seems to happen to supermarket meat, does it?  The meat is uniformly red not various shades of red, brown and grey which would be truly reflective of when the meat department put each package in the display case.

What’s really going on here?

Carbon Monoxide Keeps Meat Red Even if It’s Spoiled

The fact is that as much as 70 percent of meat sold in stores is treated with carbon monoxide to keep the meat a deceptively fresh looking red color.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless, poisonous gas that is almost impossible to see, taste or smell. It is emitted from car exhaust pipes, gas-powered lawn mowers, chimneys, gas stoves (if not used properly), unvented space heaters, and charcoal grills.

The industrialized meat industry (aka Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations – CAFO) insists that treatment with carbon monoxide, called “modified atmosphere packaging” (MAP), is necessary due to the difficulty of keeping meat at the proper temperature while in grocery store coolers.

The internal temperature of retail meat is not supposed to exceed 39° Fahrenheit (4° Celsius) at any time. An increase of just a degree or two can result in an enormous increase in bacterial growth. For example, raising the temperature from 28°F (-2° C) to 29°F (-1.5° C) can cut the shelf life of meat in half.

The problem stems from ultraviolet light from the grocery store display lights heating up the surface temperature of the meat much higher than the thermometer reading in the display case. This occurs due to the penetration of the UV light into the meat packaging similar to how our skin can burn even on a very cold day when the sun is shining.

Due to the struggles with temperature consistency, atmospheric packaging was developed. When meat is exposed to carbon monoxide, it reacts with the myoglobin in the blood giving the meat a bright red color. Fresh beef is naturally red, and as it ages, it becomes brown or grey. The carbon monoxide keeps it looking artificially fresh for up to a full year by restricting the growth of bacteria that proliferate from the increased heat of supermarket meat display cases.

gassed vs ungassed meatIs Carbon Monoxide Dangerous if Ingested?

Carbon monoxide is fatal if inhaled in large amounts because the CO molecule attaches to hemoglobin in the blood and replaces oxygen in the bloodstream. Even minor exposure can cause fatigue, headaches, and confusion. Increasing exposure leads to unconsciousness and then death. Individuals who are fortunate enough to survive poisoning with carbon monoxide frequently continue to suffer from neurological problems.

Despite the danger, consumer groups have been unsuccessful in recent years to stop the deceptive practice of treating supermarket meat with carbon monoxide.

True to form, the industrialized meat industry says that, unlike inhalation, carbon monoxide is not harmful when it is ingested via meat treated with atmospheric packaging. Industry also insists that MAP is necessary to keep meat affordable as consumers won’t buy brown meat even if it’s still fine to eat causing meat that is perfectly good for sale to be thrown out unnecessarily.

Ann Boeckman, a lawyer with a legal firm for the meat industry, says consumers needn’t worry about fake red supermarket meat.

“When a product reaches the point of spoilage, there will be other signs that will be evidenced–for example odor, slime formation and a bulging package–so the product will not smell or look right.”

Don’t you feel so much better after reading that statement?

No worries about supermarket meat that looks fresh when it’s not. You’ll know there’s a problem by the bad smell and the slimy feel of rotting meat even though it still looks bright red and ready to throw on the grill.

Just keep buying that fake red supermarket meat (along with the fake pink sustainable salmon) and stop complaining, ok? It’s cheap, right? That’s all that is supposed to count for us consumers anyway!

Where to Find Healthy Grassfed Meats

If this sounds ridiculous to you as it does to me and the lure of cheap food is just a little less appealing after reading this article, consider a switch to small farm produced, grass-fed meats by clicking here. Online shopping for quality meat has now gone mainstream and is a fantastic way to get quality meat shipped to your door to bypass local supermarkets.

Alternatively, you can spend a few dollars and have a copy of the Weston A. Price Shopping Guide mailed to you and let your fingers do the walking to find a safe source of quality meat for your family that is surprisingly affordable.

As always, a quality locally owned butcher shop where they grind the meat fresh for every customer who comes through the door is an excellent way to go. A local butcher near me is the source of the ungassed meat picture above. By comparison, the gassed “grassfed” meat is from Whole Foods.

References

(1) Carbon Monoxide: Masking the Truth About Meat?
(2) We’re Eating What? 9 Contaminants in US Meat
(3) Carbon monoxide keeps meat red longer; is that good?
(4) Carbon Monoxide Added to Meat Inhibits Bacteria Growth

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Category: Green Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her eBooks Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (118)

  1. Tanya Bosarge via Facebook

    Apr 20, 2014 at 1:21 am

    I find it ironic that America has brainwashed consumers into thinking they are the only safe place to live and consume products. I am an American living in China and was speaking to some Chinese and New Zealander friends about the way Americans think all of the food in China is so “horrible” and “disease ridden” and “bound to kill us all” – like all other countries are still in the stone ages when it comes to food. And then one friend said to me, “Don’t American companies put harmful chemicals in their meat to keep them unnaturally pink on the shelves?” It seems that foreigners know more about America than even the Americans. I am guilty of spending my life thinking that our “advanced” American ways were best, but now that I know better, I have made changes. I think that individual families are learning, and we’re finally beginning to educate one another about the dangers of food in America ~ thanks to sites like yours!

    Reply
  2. Jamie Skrypkun via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    I only eat meat that looks red and winks at me through the plastic.

    Reply
  3. Alex Hernandez via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 11:06 pm

    Oh my, i’m afraid to read this! :/

    Reply
  4. Jackson Waters via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 6:35 pm

    Again this comes down to preserving of perishable food items, a supermarket cannot function without them, supermarkets struggle now with breads and ‘fresh’ fish. Raw milk is beyond them,

    Reply
  5. Jackson Waters via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    It looks like that because people WANT it to look like that, As soon as one vendor ‘adjusts’ the food to make it more market ‘pleasing’ and it succeeds then all others follow, the average buy does not want to think about this.

    Reply
  6. Marion Harmening via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 5:48 pm

    I’m glad to be a vegetarian

    Reply
  7. Mari Redder via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 1:59 pm

    There’s also a free WAPF shopping app now, too.

    Reply
  8. Chris Bode via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 1:17 pm

    Why assume locals won’t lie? I’ve got a kid who does and she’s so local we use the same bathroom

    Reply
  9. Michelle Karwatt Anstadt via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 11:24 am

    Love my organic farmer! Very blessed!

    Reply
  10. Ruth Weston via Facebook

    Apr 19, 2014 at 11:19 am

    Support your local butcher….easy!

    Reply
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