Meat Glue
- Thread starter karrie
- Start date
Thought I would add this article about meat glue, Karrie - for others like myself on dial-up. I can't watch vids as they can take a very, very long time to download. And thank you for bringing this to our attention. :smile:
The white powder sold by the kilo is the meat industry’s dirty little secret. It’s “meat glue.” It makes pieces of beef, lamb, chicken or fish that would normally be thrown out stick together so closely that it looks like a solid piece of meat.
Restaurants and butchers can now sell their scraps as premium meat. Good way to use them up – and charge premium prices for them too. Best of all, you don’t have to tell the customer. Once the glued meat is cooked, even professional butchers can’t tell the difference.
“Meat glue” is transglutaminase, an enzyme in powder form, derived from beef and pork blood plasma. See the Wikipedia description of it here. Chefs most commonly use the Activa RM brand, which is transglutaminase mixed with maltodextrine and sodium caseinate, a milk protein. Using enzymes in food isn’t a new technique. Papaya seed is the main ingredient in meat tenderizers, for example. Rennet and yeasts produce enzymes that make cheese and alcohol, too. Naturalenzymes. Meat glue is a darker product altogether.
Yet according to Cooking Issues, the French Culinary Institute’s blog (USA), meat glue is safe. That is, the major study carried out to gain acceptance by the FDA says so. And why shouldn’t we believe? It was funded by Ajinomoto, the product’s manufacturer, after all.
This video from Australia’s TodayTonight TV show demonstrates how easily you can create Frankenstein meat. Just sprinkle a teaspoon of powdered transglutaminase on various meat scraps, knead them together and roll them up in plastic wrap. Put in the fridge and 6 hours later, you have an easily-sliced piece of meat that looks like real fillet.
Only make sure to wear your face mask while performing the simple operation: you don’t want to be inhaling powder that makes your blood clot abnormally.
Do you want to be eating it either?
Banned by the European Parliament in May 2010, meat glue is freely available through sources like Amazon.com. The information from the French Culinary Institute states that 1 kg. will hold over 100 kg. of meat parts together.
EU lawmakers give 'meat glue' red card | EurActiv
The white powder sold by the kilo is the meat industry’s dirty little secret. It’s “meat glue.” It makes pieces of beef, lamb, chicken or fish that would normally be thrown out stick together so closely that it looks like a solid piece of meat.
Restaurants and butchers can now sell their scraps as premium meat. Good way to use them up – and charge premium prices for them too. Best of all, you don’t have to tell the customer. Once the glued meat is cooked, even professional butchers can’t tell the difference.
“Meat glue” is transglutaminase, an enzyme in powder form, derived from beef and pork blood plasma. See the Wikipedia description of it here. Chefs most commonly use the Activa RM brand, which is transglutaminase mixed with maltodextrine and sodium caseinate, a milk protein. Using enzymes in food isn’t a new technique. Papaya seed is the main ingredient in meat tenderizers, for example. Rennet and yeasts produce enzymes that make cheese and alcohol, too. Naturalenzymes. Meat glue is a darker product altogether.
Yet according to Cooking Issues, the French Culinary Institute’s blog (USA), meat glue is safe. That is, the major study carried out to gain acceptance by the FDA says so. And why shouldn’t we believe? It was funded by Ajinomoto, the product’s manufacturer, after all.
This video from Australia’s TodayTonight TV show demonstrates how easily you can create Frankenstein meat. Just sprinkle a teaspoon of powdered transglutaminase on various meat scraps, knead them together and roll them up in plastic wrap. Put in the fridge and 6 hours later, you have an easily-sliced piece of meat that looks like real fillet.
Only make sure to wear your face mask while performing the simple operation: you don’t want to be inhaling powder that makes your blood clot abnormally.
Do you want to be eating it either?
Banned by the European Parliament in May 2010, meat glue is freely available through sources like Amazon.com. The information from the French Culinary Institute states that 1 kg. will hold over 100 kg. of meat parts together.
EU lawmakers give 'meat glue' red card | EurActiv
I'll add Mowich why it was banned in the EU, and the most dangerous aspect of 'meat glue'.
Essentially, the reason a steak is safe to cook rare, is because the inside of the steak has never come into contact with bacteria in the air, on counters, etc. With the advent of 'meat glue', you could be eating rare, a steak that is comprised of dozens of small pieces, each of which have had microbial exposure. Thus, cooking it rare exposes you to the same risks as, essentially, eating hamburger raw. The health risks with undeclared 'glued' meat are phenomenal.
Essentially, the reason a steak is safe to cook rare, is because the inside of the steak has never come into contact with bacteria in the air, on counters, etc. With the advent of 'meat glue', you could be eating rare, a steak that is comprised of dozens of small pieces, each of which have had microbial exposure. Thus, cooking it rare exposes you to the same risks as, essentially, eating hamburger raw. The health risks with undeclared 'glued' meat are phenomenal.
Thanks, Karrie. :smile:
I used to buy large pieces of steak so I could cut it up into smaller pieces at home. With a lot of the meat today, you can just pull pieces apart without tearing the meat - no need for a knife.