Why does Wal-Mart sell meat injected with water and chemicals?
If you read this space regularly, you know I’m a tad obsessed about the meat at Wal-Mart. It’s not that I plan to eat any of it soon, it’s that I think people ought to know exactly what gets done to it. I’ve been following the story Wal-Mart suppliers gassing the meat with carbon monoxide for months, and I knew that Wal-Mart watered down its meat but I didn’t quite understand how much until I read this outraged letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott:
I didn’t take the time to inspect the entire meat department but I did look at a small sampling of those cuts around me.
Ham………….contained……23% solution
Chicken Breasts.contained……15% solution
Pork Roast……contained……12% solution
Ground Round….contained……15% solution
Chuck Roast…..contained……11% solution
Beef Fillet…..contained……20% solutionI have no doubt in my mind that this is (sorry about the pun), just the tip of the iceburg. If you carry this through, you will realize that we’re paying considerably more per pound of “meat” than the label implies. While we believe we’re buying a 5-pound fillet for $4.96 per pound or $24.80 total, in reality, it’s costing considerably more. Divide the price for the four pounds of actual meat when you subtract for a pound for the solution and you’ll see that we paid $6.20 for a pound for the actual meat.
Now I realize this guy didn’t do a scientific survey or anything, but Wal-Mart told the NYT that “a majority of its fresh offerings are enhanced with a 6 to 12 percent solution of water, salt, sodium phosphate and natural flavorings.” Perhaps they have their math a little off?
If Wal-Mart isn’t selling water in its meat in order to rip people off, what exactly is all that solution doing in there? Here’s Wal-Mart’s explanation to the Hartford Courant:
Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters told me that all its case-ready beef (packaged at the processing plant) is “enhanced with a maximum 12 percent solution of water, sodium phosphate, salt, and natural flavorings. As a result, case-ready beef is superior in tenderness, texture, juiciness, and flavor to non-enhanced beef cuts and provides a preferred eating experience.
[Emphasis added]”
So let me get this straight. Wal-Mart saves money buying its meat from factory farms. Wal-Mart saves money by not hiring meatcutters so that they won’t unionize. Wal-Mart saves money by selling its customers water at the same price by weight they charge for meat. Yet they’re trying to tell us they sell meat injected with water and chemicals because we’ll get a “preferred eating experience?”
How dumb do they think we are?
Be careful buying beef and chicken or any meat that has been “preseasoned” for you not only at Walmart but a lot of the grocery stores. The seasoning that they are using is full of peservatives. Makes me wonder how old the meat is before they put the “seasoning” on it for us.
BEWARE of Chicken Breasts purchased at SAMs Club, and be prepared for a 75% water evaporation vs. a normal 30%. Bought a ten pound pack and got 2.5 pounds after frying it. Needed more so I had to go to Winn Dixie and purchased 6.75 pounds, came home fried it and came out with 4.5 pounds. A 2.25 pound loss from chicken bought at WD vs. approximately 7.5 loss from SAMs chicken. Can someone PLEASE explain this to me. SAMs and Walmart CLAIM a maximum 12% injection water weight. Apparently, this is some kind of NEW MATH we haven’t learned yet
I splurged and bought a pork roast at Wal Mart and it tasted like boullion soup, which I happen to hate. If I wanted soup in my meat, I would be the ONLY ONE to put it there.
I am curious if you readers ever experienced a red color/dye after cooking chicken from Winn Dixie? I recently in the last two months have noticed this phenomenon and I am concern, it is noticeable after 24 hrs, and seeps from the bones or is accumulated on the skillet separated from the fat.
Thanks
Red stuff coming to the surface is blood…you will notice it in beef also when it is cooking as the blood is cooking it comes to the top always when it is gone and the meat fills very hard then that is how you can tell it is done..well one way if you do not have a thermometer…but I always dice it up and over cook it just incase
This site was very enlightening…sodium phosphate causes irreversible kidney damage…it is given to patients to make them have a bowel movement in order to have a colonoscopy.
This is what happened to my dogs..I fed my dog Wal-Mart family pack of chicken breast from Causeway Blvd Brandon Wal-Mart and he died after attempting to acquire him care not one but two vets fumbled the ball…blue pearl refused my poor dog iv antibiotic therapy and I had to beg for them to give him iv fluids. ..instead they gave him rimyadal which is for arthritis but he could not walk because he needed antibiotics and fluids..the royal made blood come out his mouth…I had to watch my dog suffer and die for 12 hrs…I had ask blue pearl about euthanizing him so he would not suffer if they were not going to care for him but they just looked at me and did not answer…ridiculous. All they wanted was $1200 and wanted to do all kinds of scans when all he needed was Iv therapy. I have some healthcare train I g and my fiancee is Physician so I knew what he needed they just refused to act in a decent manner…the first vet refused to give him a pnc injection but instead gave him oral antibiotics.
Not realizing their chicken was the culprit I purchased some more of the same chicken from Wal-Mart and my uncle overheard a couple customers saying something is wrong with the chicken…but I figured they may have just under cooked it and had became ill….Wal-Mart pulled it from the shelf but some how I was allowed to check out with the chicken…. then I fed my other dog the chicken and he had the same faconi like syndrome symptoms too and almost died…He is still fighting it. So I went to causeway walmart IN Brandon trying to ask why the chicken had been pulled and MARCIA the customer service manager lied and said it had not Been pulled when in fact my uncle saw walmart pull the chicken off the shelf….only thing Marcia said to me quite rudely was “we are not taking that chicken back” No you cannot return it” . The reason I ask is because I wanted to know why Wal-Mart pulled the chicken so my vet could better understand how to treat the symptoms….and all I got was obnoxious behavior….the employee was very defensive which leads me to believe they do know why the chicken was pulled off the shelf.
Here is the link about imported chicken from China…it pertains to chicken dog treats but my dog had the very same symptoms as the falcon likely syndromes seen in dogs from consuming chicken treats but my dog ate the chicken breast made for human consumption. Here is the link http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/fda-repeats-warning-on-chicken-jerky-for-dogs/