Kroger Quits Stocking Gas-Packaged Beef Red Color
FDA petitioner says shoppers can't gauge the freshness of meat packaged with carbon monoxide Wednesday, February 22, 2006FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS The Oregonian The nation's largest grocery chain said Tuesday that it has decided to stop carrying ground beef products packaged with minute amounts of carbon monoxide designed to keep meat an appealing pink color.
Kroger, the parent company of Fred Meyer and QFC stores in the Pacific Northwest and Fry's, Smith's and Ralph's across the country, said its decision late last week arose from uncertainty over the pros and cons of using the gas. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004, carbon monoxide use faces a challenge by one company and consumer organizations...
...The gas, harmless to health at the levels being used, gives meat a bright pink color that lasts weeks. The meat industry hopes the process can save much of the $1 billion it says it loses annually from having to discount or discard meat that is reasonably fresh and perfectly safe, but no longer pretty.
Critics, however, say the FDA violated its own rules by allowing the practice without a formal evaluation of its effect on consumer safety.
"This meat stays red and stays red and stays red," said Don Berdahl, vice president and laboratory director at Kalsec Foods. If nothing else, Berdahl and others say, the treated meat should be labeled so consumers will know not to trust their eyes.
"We feel it's a huge consumer right-to-know issue," said Donna Rosenbaum of Safe Tables Our Priority, a Burlington, Vt., organization that, along with the Consumer Federation of America, wrote to the FDA in support of a ban.
The offensive has the meat industry seeing red. Officials deny their foes' claim that carbon monoxide is a "colorant" -- a category that would require a full FDA review -- saying it helps meat retain its naturally red color. They also point out that removing oxygen during packaging limits bacterial growth and helps protect human health.
Melinda Merrill, a spokeswoman for Fred Meyer, said Kroger's decision to order its supplier to stop using carbon monoxide on beef patties and chili meat resulted from "ambiguous" information over the treatment's advantages and disadvantages.
"We just didn't have enough information to feel like it had to be in our meat," she said.
Because the meat has a shelf life of about 10 days, she said it would be about another week before meat packaged with carbon monoxide disappears from stores.
An Albertsons spokeswoman said six of its ground pork and sausage products are packaged using carbon monoxide, but none is used in its beef.
A Safeway spokeswoman did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Meat industry representatives say color is a poor indicator of freshness as meat turns brown from exposure to oxygen long before it goes bad.
"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," said Ann Boeckman, a lawyer with the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson. It represents Precept Foods LLC, a joint venture between Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. and Hormel Foods Corp. that helped pioneer the technology.
For years, the meat industry has used atmospheric packaging to limit spoilage. The industry standard has been to vacuum-package bulk cuts of meat at slaughterhouses or inject gases in packaging before shipping to retail outlets.
Meat packaged in a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide stays fresh for longer periods, but turns an unappealing purple color. The red color returns when the meat is exposed to oxygen after retail outlets open the bulk meats and cut them into individual sizes.
The new technology allows meatpackers to prepare individual cuts of meat for retail sale by adding a mixture of 0.4 percent carbon monoxide to the roughly 70/30 blend of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The carbon monoxide reacts with natural myoglobin in meat to produce a red color, "simulating the appearance of freshness and masking meat spoilage," Kalsec wrote in its FDA petition.
In Oregon, some meatpackers and grinders have embraced the use of carbon monoxide.
Interstate Meat Distributors Inc., a large meat-grinding operation in Clackamas, began experimenting with the use of carbon monoxide about a year ago.
Darrin Hoy, Interstate's general manager, said media reports on the technology had ignored vital information: Packaging meat in an oxygen-free environment drastically reduces the proliferation of bacteria.
"This is something that helps minimize food-safety issues with ground beef," he said. "It's not a colorant, and it's not an additive."
But Carlton Farms, Oregon's largest meatpacker, says it uses no added gases in the packing process. John Duyn, the company's president, said Carlton vacuum packs meat to remove oxygen.
"We do not use any carbon monoxide nor would I ever use it," he said. "I don't believe in the use of mixed gases . . . because everything we produce is natural."
Alex Pulaski of The Oregonian staff and Rick Weiss of The Washington Post contributed to this report
Majority of Online Readers Don't Mind Carbon Monoxide With Packaged Meat But Say There Should Be Labels
February 22, 2006
Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Excerpt....
We asked: Some in the meat industry use carbon monoxide gas in their packaging to give meat a bright pink color that lasts for weeks. The meat industry hopes that it will save much of the $1 billion it says it loses annually from having to discount or discard meat that is safe and reasonably fresh but no longer pretty. The gas is harmless to health at the levels being used in the packaging. Click here to read story. Do you think the use of carbon monoxide to preserve packaged meat's red color is deceptive? Should grocers label meat that has been packaged with carbon monoxide?
You said: Comments appear here as they were submitted to the Statesman Journal. They are listed in the order in which they came with the most recent at the top.
The Statesman Journal reserves the right to remove content that is offensive, illegal or irrelevant to the topic.
The discussion was online Feb. 21.
I am so glad they use carbon monoxide. Frankly, I wish they added more stuff to my meat so that it would look better. Seeing is believing, and when you see a nice fat pink steak, you can't wait to pop it in the oven. I don't want grocers to label my meat, that wouldn't look as good. I can just see myself serving a nice steak with "CARBON MONOXIDE" plastered on it like a brand on a cows butt. Are these people nuts for thinking of such a thing? The answer is yes, and I want my meat to be mark free!!!
Johnny, 31, Doctor, Salem
MMMMMsteaks grilled to perfection. Makes one long for summer days ahead. Lets leave out the red dyes,carbon gases, and just enjoy that slab of beef. Medium rare please.
Daddy-O, 40's, backyard griller, salem
To Rafina and Dumb blonde--I do not exclude myself from the stupid group. I got suckered into the Poke Rind diet. Delicious Poke Rinds. Lost 20 pounds and all feeling in the left side of my body.
George, n/a, n/a, n/a
Yes, it is deceptive to use carbon monoxide. It shouldn't be allowed at all because it's deceptive (and it's already illegal in some countries). However, given that the food industry can pay off enough lawmakers that it will be allowed anyway, it should at least require a label.
Alex Benenson, 43, Engineer, Salem
I prefer free-range, locally produced, vacuum-packed meat myself. I find this at Fitt's Seafood and Lifesource.
Barbara F. Ray, 59, homemaker, Salem
Americans are suckers George and yes, they are stupid. Although we are all stupid in our own way. Funny you bring up wine and cigs in your post. 60% of Americans are fat, and they are trying everything to lose weight. The women who wrote French Women Don't Get Fat made millions of dollars selling her book, but guess what George, she didn't tell all of her secrets. Maybe she's saving it for her next book. In secret, French women spit out that rich chocolate, pastries, pasta with heavy cream and cheeze, and even wine. They eat half of what their husbands do and enjoy the food they eat, even the food they spit out. There, you can save the $30.00 on the next book, and if you already have one-- suckers!
Rafina, Interpreteur, Travel Industry, Salem
Oh George, you cutie! Are you really a consultant? Wow...I mean your comments were sooooo helpful. I am one who tries anything the media tries to sell me on, but did you have to refer to people like me as "stupid"? That did hurt my feelings just a teeny bit.
Dumb blonde, youthful , Fad dieter, Salem
I learned years ago that brown meat isn't necessarily bad meat. This is one time in life stupid people are actually helpful. I think it's great when I get the same steak, the same roast, or the same pound of lean ground beef as them but at half to a quarter the price they pay. With gas I wait a few extra days and without a few less. The practice is not deceptive. Do you leave a house thrashed when you sell it? No, you pretty it up. Why should the grocer have to do less if pretty pink meat is what the customers want. Why should they label it? You don't label the cracks and wholes in the wall you painted over before selling your house. If you don't like the gas, do like me and wait until the brown stuff shows up in the bargain bin. Tastes the same at half the price.
Joe W., 45, web designer, Salem
No more labeling issues like this, please. Here's the problem: Americans are stupid. Really really stupid. You tell them a product is "low fat" but with twice as many calories, people will go buy that product for it's health benefits. People will drink a bottle of wine, "for it's health benefits...like the french do" (do you smoke a pack of ciggies as well...like the french do?) You sell them a salad at McDonalds that has as many calories as a quarter pounder, people will buy them because they are "healthier." You sell them "slimfast" then weightwatchers, then atkins, then trimspa, then herbalife, then...All you get is the same product, but now with a label. Sure, people can read the label, but do they really, really, understand? The answer is a resounding esounding, "Heck no." If you labeled Uranium as a recommended dietary supplement, they'd buy it. I promise you.
George, 59, Nutritional Consultant, Salem
Wake up everyone...Companies have been putting strange things in our food for years. Chickens are fed marigold petals so chicken breasts are more golden. Farm fish are fed crill so that the salmon looks more pink. Many bread companies use carmel coloring to make the bread look brown and more healthy. Juice companies use coloring to make the juice look sweeter, when the majority of flavored juices are from pears, (seriously). I just love when companies come up with something new to make consumers buy their product...Most labels have the information you need to figure out what is in the product. It would be great if meat companies would do the same.
Educated about food, 28, Home Ec Teacher, Salem
Using Carbon Monoxide in meat packaging is no different than using Red speckled Cellophane wraping. The intent is to deceive the customer with prettier meat. Why can't businesses that depend upon us, the consumer, to stay in business, just be up front with us and be honest??? But yes, if they are going to do it, there should be a label saying so!
H. Depew, 73, Retired, Dallas...
...When I'm packing pink meat, I find that, gas or not, the meat still turns brown. But I would still support the use of carbon monoxide if it would help the meat look better for a longer period of time.
Ron J., 52, Actor, Brentwood
Have you ever seen the inside of a cannery? Veggies yum. I will take the meat. And buy the way labeling does nothing ie tobacco
na, na, na, salem
With regard to meat or fish being labeled "carbon monozide", I definitely believe the practice is deceptive and should be discontinued. If it is continued, then it should be labeled, whether it comes prepacked to a store or whether it is used locally. I believe the meat departments should be required to post the use or non-use or announced in the Statesman-Journal those meat departments who are using the gas. I just wonder how many other practices are used to deceive the public.
Gini L. Huff, 82, Retired, Salem
I would be most happy, and I think most people would agree, that informed consent is the way to go. I always feel less 'duped' when I can make an informed decision on the choices I make. If I choose to buy super pink meat, knowing it's laced with CO, then so be it. On a side note though, it would be GREAT to know when meat is bad. For instance, if the meat industry stops tainting their products with CO, how do I know if I'm getting a fresh cut of meat or not? Does meat immediately smell bad? Isn't prime rib aged? I guess the pink meat gives me a false sense of security
TB, 34, Analyst, Keizer
I've had gas for years and I didn't think it was a problem, although my family sure did come family vacation time. Little did I know I was helping their skin stay soft and supple.
Randy, 31, Exterminator, Salem
Its not something that is done at store level. It is done before it reaches the store. Its that meat that comes in pre-packaged containers, "case-ready meats". Its a cheaper way to operate. They dont have to pay a journeyman butcher to cut it and a journeyman wrapper to wrap it. They just have to order it and it comes in all fresh looking filled with gas. Yummmy!
teresa, 33, sales, salem
Of course, label it. Let the people who want pretty meat eat it. I work in a grocery store and it cracks me up when people get all in a twist because there is a little brown spot on their steak. Give me a break. If it takes gas to make you feel better about it, knock yourself out. Just let me know as a consumer that it is in there. So I wont buy it. Just like people who have no problem putting their groceries on a gross sticky, belt covered in bacteria from dried meat juice and who knows what. But when it is all wet after I clean it with sanitizer, they seem disgusted that they have to set anything in it. Ok, done ranting.....
Friendly Local Grocery Clerk, 32, : ), Salem
Wait a second? I see the folks behind the glass cases at Costco,WinCo, and in your "traditional" butcher shop weighing the meat, wrapping it in Saran wrap, and slapping a sticker with the exact price on it (which in and of itself is a 500% mark-up because they are a bunch of rip-off artists. No where do I see a hose coming from the exhaust of a running car parked out back. I don't see the meat food workers lacing meat with with CO. Last time I watched one of those A&E investigative shows, it showed a dead guy who committed suicide with CO and he didn't look bright pink that lasted for weeks. He was pale and dead-looking. You guys at the Statesman Journal are pulling my leg today!
Robert D., 39, worker, salem
Yes, it should be labeled. In not doing so they could be creating a dangerous false sense of security by enabling meat to remain "fresh" looking beyond the point of spoilage. And, with that said, what are we going to do about Cher? (:
R. Gess Smith, Unk., Whats the Beef?, Salem...
...Yes, they should state, your meat has been gassed.Eat at your own risk.They have discovered the toilet bowls at your favorite fast food restaurant is cleaner than the pop and water dispensers.Or, you could be a tree hugger and not eat any meat.Besides, the meat your eating could be Aunt Martha. Ya right.
Dave, personal, my business, Salem
Yes, of course - truth in advertising, etc. etc. Americans are used to things, even their food, being "pretty in pink". So many wouldn't survive in a country where food is served au naturale - it would be too unappealing. So American industry pretties things up so they will sell.
Suzy Q Homemaker, ripe young age, carniferous vegetarian, salem
Well now that I know that they're adding gas and food coloring to meat, there is a opportunity to have a section in the meat department that sells "All natural beef" and of course at a higher price.
Dave, 46, Design, Corvallis
Anytime something is done to alter the natural color or changes in foods that have a shorter shelf life, there should be some kind of label put on the food. Otherwise, you are witholding information from your customers so they can make an educated purchase.
Matt, Rickreall, State Employee, 36
Carbon monoxide does not make meat pink, oxygen does or unless some one can explain how this works because carbon monoxide would make it brown. I worked in the industry for awhile and I believe its just another attack on them. Even 20 years ago they would use nitrogen to reduce the oxygen in the air when storing beef to help preserve it. It is funny though how people want it pink when aged beef is brown and when you unrap it it will turn red.
Hunt to kill, kill to hunt no, 500, hunter, Salem.
As long as there are well placed signs stating that the Meat department is using this practice, the meat is dated and all food handling practices are still maintained it should be OK
Doug, 49, class of 74, Salem
Let's get REAL of course people have the right to know how food is packaged and everything else. So much of this type of thing is kept away from people that it is not right at all.
Darlene, 60, retired, Albany
I actually learned about this years ago in one of my Biology classes. The funny thing is people are so worried about what their meat looks like, I think it's funnier that formaldehyde or forms of it, is in almost anything, hence the name preservatives like bread, jelly, anything that can rot basically ha! And people are freaked out about their meat looking pretty....Hilarious!
Ari, 23, Student, Salem
Yuk. Yes it is deceptive. Yes, we must have truth in labeling. We all know how long meat lasts thawed out. Do you really want it gassed and prettied up! Gee, would this be coming from the venerated FDA who want to take away our vitamins and herbs but just put a warning label on Vioxx? I'll pass.
KJ, Salem, Oregon, USA
FDA Is Urged to Ban Carbon-Monoxide-Treated Meat
By Rick WeissWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, February 20, 2006
Excerpt...
Picture two steaks on a grocer's shelf, each hermetically sealed in clear plastic wrap. One is bright pink, rimmed with a crescent of pearly white fat. The other is brown, its fat the color of a smoker's teeth.
Which do you reach for?
The meat industry knows the answer, which is why it has quietly begun to spike meat packages with carbon monoxide.
The gas, harmless to health at the levels being used, gives meat a bright pink color that lasts weeks. The hope is that it will save the industry much of the $1 billion it says it loses annually from having to discount or discard meat that is reasonably fresh and perfectly safe but no longer pretty.
But the growing use of carbon monoxide as a "pigment fixative" is alarming consumer advocates and others who say it deceives shoppers who depend on color to help them avoid spoiled meat. Those critics are challenging the Food and Drug Administration and the nation's powerful meat industry, saying the agency violated its own rules by allowing the practice without a formal evaluation of its impact on consumer safety.
"This meat stays red and stays red and stays red," said Don Berdahl, vice president and laboratory director at Kalsec Foods in Kalamazoo, Mich., a maker of natural food extracts that has petitioned the FDA to ban the practice.
If nothing else, Berdahl and others say, carbon-monoxide-treated meat should be labeled so consumers will know not to trust their eyes.
The legal offensive has the meat industry seeing red. Officials deny their foes' claim that carbon monoxide is a "colorant" -- a category that would require a full FDA review -- saying it helps meat retain its naturally red color.
Besides, industry representatives say, color is a poor indicator of freshness as meat turns brown from exposure to oxygen long before it goes bad.
"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," said Ann Boeckman, a lawyer with the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson. It represents Precept Foods LLC, a joint venture between Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. and Hormel Foods Corp. that helped pioneer the technology.
Much is at stake. The U.S. market in "case ready" meats -- those packaged immediately after slaughter, eliminating the need for butchers at grocery stores -- is approaching $10 billion and growing, said Steve Kay of Cattle Buyers Weekly, which tracks the industry from Petaluma, Calif. Tyson Foods, for example -- one of three meat packagers that has received a green light from the FDA to use carbon monoxide -- just opened a $100 million plant in Texas to churn out more case-ready "modified atmosphere" packaged meats, Kay said.
No one knows how much carbon-monoxide-treated meat is being sold; the companies involved are privately held or keep that information secret. But the potential is seen as great. The new technology "will finally make this the case-ready revolution, rather than the case-ready evolution," said Mark Klein, director of communications for Cargill's meat business...
..."We feel it's a huge consumer right-to-know issue," said Donna Rosenbaum of Safe Tables Our Priority, an advocacy group in Burlington, Vt., created after four children died and hundreds became sick after eating tainted hamburgers from Jack in the Box restaurants in 1992 and 1993. Last month, the Burlington group and the Consumer Federation of America wrote to the FDA in support of a ban.
At the core of the issue is how the FDA has assessed companies' requests to use carbon monoxide in their packaging.
It started about five years ago, when Pactiv Corp. of Lake Forest, Ill., urged the FDA to declare the approach "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS -- a regulatory category that allows a firm to proceed with its plans without public review or formal agency "approval."
The FDA told Pactiv in 2002 it had no argument with the proposal. In 2004, Precept Foods received a similar letter, and recently Tyson did as well.
The FDA has also deemed carbon monoxide GRAS for keeping tuna looking fresh.
Kalsec acknowledges having an economic interest in fighting the practice. The company sells extracts of rosemary and other natural essences that help block the oxidation that turns meat brown. Its products have allowed meat packagers to use high-oxygen atmospheres in sealed packages to maintain freshness without having to worry about browning.
That is a market that could largely disappear as packagers switch to low-oxygen atmospheres with carbon monoxide -- an approach that keeps meat looking red not just longer, but almost indefinitely.
But Kalsec, and the consumer advocates who have signed on to the fight, say it is not just the market in extracts that is at risk.
They note that the European Union has banned the use of carbon monoxide as a color stabilizer in meat and fish. A December 2001 report from the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Food concluded that the gas (whose chemical abbreviation is "CO") did not pose a risk as long as food was kept cold enough during storage and transport to prevent microbial growth. But should the meat become inadvertently warmer at some point, it warned, "the presence of CO may mask visual evidence of spoilage."
How is it, Berdahl and others ask, that something can be deemed "generally recognized as safe" when there is enough scientific debate over the issue to warrant a ban in Europe?
"I just picture a refrigerator truck breaking down in Arizona and sitting there for an afternoon. Then, 'Hey, we got it repaired and nobody knows the difference,' and there you go."
Opponents also say the FDA was wrong to consider carbon monoxide a color fixative rather than a color additive -- a crucial decision because additives must pass a rigorous FDA review. They note that freshly cut meat looks purplish red, and that the addition of carbon monoxide -- which binds to a muscle protein called myoglobin -- turns it irreversibly pink.
Proponents of the gas counter that meat turns from purple to red just from sitting in air, and that CO prevents the next step, in which meats turn brown. They also say consumers should pay attention to "sell or freeze by" dates as the best indicator of freshness.
George H. Pauli, associate director for science and policy in the FDA's Office of Food Additive Safety, defended the agency's decisions. "In general, statute says you cannot use [substances] in a deceptive manner, and the question is what is a deceptive manner," Pauli said.
He emphasized that the agency has never formally approved the gas's use, but rather looked at information provided by the companies and decided not to object.
"We said, 'Thank you, you've helped inform us,' " Pauli said.
That is what has opponents most upset.
"The FDA should not have accepted carbon monoxide in meat without doing its own independent evaluation of the safety implications," Elizabeth Campbell, former head of the FDA's office of food labeling, wrote in a statement released in November.
Bucky Gwartney, executive director for research and knowledge management for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, chafes at the idea that the industry is trying to fool consumers.
"It would be ludicrous for a company to adopt a process that would undermine what we all want, which is to assure that food is safe," Gwartney said. "Maybe it needs to be more transparent and public," he acknowledged. "If that's what we need to do, we'll probably do that as an industry."
