Here's a quick story for you while I work on the Hawaii posts. First the bad news. The report is from Australia, but the practice is legal in America, though they are supposed to tell us about it in the fine print.
Yes, it's Frankenfood—but you can't deny it has a coolness factor, too.
As far as I can tell, there are two major problems:
- Contamination. Those of us who like our beef to be mooing know that a rare hamburger is much riskier than a rare steak. With the steak, even brief cooking kills surface bacteria, but with the hamburger the "surface" has been mixed all through the patty. Thanks to meat glue, your piece of meat may look like a steak yet have all the contamination risks of a burger.
- Dishonesty. It's like the carton of juice that proudly proclaims, "Unsweetened," but in the fine print admits it contains sucralose. I wouldn't make using transglutaminase illegal, but I would require a clear, open acknowlegement that the food is not natural.
Don't ban the foods; be honest and let the consumer decide.
The question is, will you state it as a fact that Transglutaminas is harmless to humans? I am completely skeptical, especially learning that the meat industry has been using this for years without the consumer’s knowledge. My wife has gone through many major surgeries including 5 colon, 3 obstructions, rectal and loss of a kidney. She loved McDonalds and Wendy’s chicken nuggets. I use to wonder how they could press the chicken together without it falling apart. She would usually purchase less expensive meats that would taste different. I am sure that you can’t guarantee that meat glue (TG) might have had something to do with it.
Thanks,
Russ.
I'm sorry your wife has had to suffer so much trouble, Russ. It's natural, in such cases, to blame anything and everything—especially when no clear answer is forthcoming.
And you're right, I can't tell you that transglutaminase—or anything else for that matter—is perfectly safe for all humans. Fortunately, that's not my job. Unfortunately, those whose job it is can't make such a guarantee, either. Presumably, they do their due diligence, and make their best guess at an acceptable level of risk. I don't expect them to be perfect, but I do expect them to keep us informed and let us make our own decisions. I'd rather avoid it, but I'm not going to make that decision for someone else.
