The dirty little secret about why supermarket and large healthfood store display cases of meat are always uniformly red will hopefully motivate you to buy from local businesses instead!
The picture above shows the stark, visual difference between organic ground beef purchased from Whole Foods (on the right) versus local, grassfed ground beef from a butcher (on the left).
Notice also how the red color of the meat on the right looks decidedly fake.
The picture shows what the meat looks like after I put both packages in the refrigerator after purchasing on the same day…and then opening them up a couple of days later to see the color of the meat!
Things aren’t always as they appear, are they?
Bright Red Supermarket Meat
Have you ever wondered why the supermarket meat display case is always red..so bright red, in fact, that it looks fake?
Is it possible that every package on display was freshly cut 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 Turns Meat Red Even if Spoiled
The fact is that as much as 70 percent of meat sold in stores in the United States is treated with carbon monoxide to keep the meat a deceptively fresh-looking red color.
Even more disturbing, Europe banned this practice many years ago because it was deemed unsafe! Japan and Canada have banned carbon monoxide as a color stabilizer in meat and fish as well. (1)
What is carbon monoxide anyway?
It is an odorless, colorless, poisonous gas that is almost impossible to see, taste, or smell.
It is emitted from car exhaust pipes, gas-powered lawnmowers, 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. (2)
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. (3)
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 brownish or grey.
Gassing beef with carbon monoxide keeps it looking artificially fresh for up to a full year!
This occurs by restricting the growth of bacteria that proliferate from the increased heat of supermarket meat display cases.
Is Eating Carbon Monoxide Dangerous?
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.
Translation: “We NEED to gas the meat to maximize our profits and hide dangerous industry food handling practices from the public”.
The industrialized meat industry also insists that “modified atmosphere packaging” is necessary to keep meat affordable as consumers won’t buy brown meat even if it’s still fine to eat. (4)
This causes meat that is perfectly good for sale to be thrown out unnecessarily.
Hmmm.
How come local meat producers and supermarkets in the EU, Canada, and Japan don’t seem to have this problem and yet they DON’T gas their meat??
Sounds like gaslighting to me!
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. (5)
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 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 even if you live in a “food desert”.
Alternatively, you can spend a few dollars and have a copy of the Weston A. Price Shopping Guide mailed to you.
Let your fingers do the walking to find a safe source of quality meat for your family that is surprisingly affordable.
As always, a locally owned butcher shop where they grind the meat fresh for every customer who comes through the door is an excellent way to go.
(1) Your Meat Is Treated with Carbon Monoxide to Make It Look Fresh
(2, 5) We’re Eating What? 9 Contaminants in US Meat
(3) Carbon Added to Meat Inhibits Bacteria Growth
(4) Carbon Monoxide keeps meat red longer; is that good?
How about whole foods? Do they use Carbon monoxide on their meats?
I buy beef and goat meat hear in India where they slaughter it fresh each day and hang it up in their little shops on the side of the road. It’s brown – no redness at all and I usually buy it around 8:30am. I don’t know what time they slaughter but the worst problem we face is car fumes going all over the meat which I guess is the same problem as supermarket meat in America! I wish I could know whether the cows are grass fed, I’ve enquired and am told that they are because the farmers can’t afford grains to feed them and the fat is mostly yellow. Sometimes it really bothers me seeing a 3rd world country gradually moving away from their traditions and going towards supermarkets and cars etc. Sometimes I see farmers ploughing their soil with the bull and cart – it’s brilliant!! but sadly it’s looked upon as being poor. For some reason I trust all your blogging Sarah, I’m not too concerned whether your research is properly done… I get the message that you’re trying to steer people towards supporting their small local farmers and in turn getting better nutrition for their families
I’m pretty surprised to hear that you buy beef to eat in India, since they are at least 80% Hindu (who think that cows are sacred and would never eat beef). I have seen cows wandering around the streets of New Delhi eating garbage, so even if you could purchase beef to eat, I certainly wouldn’t do it.
In fact, Hindus will not allow anyone to kill the cows. They worship cows, which is why the cows are wandering around the streets eating garbage.
do you really want to know, or is this a rhetorical question?
MJ – you’re paid naysayer commentator – it’s showing around the edges. We’re onto you.
MJ admits above that she is Canadian, so the USDA has absolutely nothing to do with her food choices! Canadians are conditioned to blindly accept their socialist government rather than think for themselves. She probably cannot understand why we want to do so, but why she seeks out blogs she doesn’t agree with just to inject controversy is beyond me. I come to learn, sometimes to ask reasonable questions, but always to try to add to the discussion, not cause trouble!
Actually, I came across this blog by accident. And I didn’t set out just to create controversy. I read what Sarah said and I thought about it, and I saw some very basic flaws in her presentation and reasoning. Then I pointed them out. Unfortunately, it appears that no one else took the time to check out what I said.
If you check out what I said and find that I was wrong, then by all means tell the world what you found! But not one person so far has addressed what I said. Instead you are all upset that I said it.
So who is blindly accepting what they are told?
I feel you do not know many Canadians. We are no less likely to think for ourselves than anyone else.
MJ please go away, or stop questioning every one on their choices. we are here to be informed and make our own choices. Food bloggers are people who blog about food and should not be accused of being obsessed and ungrateful for what they have. Please try to have a wonderful life. 🙂
I agree. I am 27 and my family raised and butchered their own meats. I still live in the area of FL where my family is. I traveled to Mexico and it was the same thing you witnessed in India, but there were Wal-Marts being built everywhere last time I went, and that was a few years ago. I seems things are going in reverse. Many of us here in America want traditional things while many parts of the world they want what we have. Some countries have found a balance though.
I hope you will answer my question because I know others want to know too…..how do YOU know the sources you site are credible?
I’ve used the eatwild source for many years to find reputable local farms. Also, I have been a Chapter Leader for the Weston Price Foundation for over 10 years now and that Shopping Guide is a goldmine for finding quality food. The gal who updates that guide every year is very vigilant in vetting the sources … not just any producer can get in that guide. Also, I make nothing by recommending either of these sources.
Does rinsing the meat with water after removing from store packaging remove this CM ? If not can we rinse in anything that would help, vinegar, baking soda water, etc. ?
There is not a way to remove the carbon monoxide that I know of. The biggest problem is, though, that the meat is not as fresh as you think it is and could very well be a food safety issue.
The CM treated beef I buy does not hold its red color for as long as claimed. Its looks red at first but it starts to brown even before reaching tbe use by date. If you still disregard the use by date just because of the color, then you deserve the food poisoning you get as a result. If you cant tell spoiled meat from fresh meat, you probably shouldn’t be cooking it in the first place.
Until a couple of decades ago (until before the supermarkets, in the days when one bought meat at a butcher who often killed and butchered his produce) one would bleed the animal (catching the blood to make bloodsausages and the like) and then HANG it for a couple of weeks (in a cooled place, such as a refrigerator or a shed with blocks of ice – the idea would be to ‘ripen’ the meat, not to spoil it). Only organ meat would be sold fresh, the rest was, as I said, hung in a cool place. This hanging was essential; it almost predigested the meat so the end cuts would be tender and delicious. Apparently, the better buchers still age their beef:
And this is what is so ludicrous about this all; until forty, fifty, sixty years ago, no housewife would expect to buy beef that looked as if it had just been slaughtered. Nobody would WANT beef that had just been slaughtered. Our culture has distanced itself so much from our food (instead of buying meat from the butcher who still had half a carcas haning behind the shop counter to buying meat in plastic boxes) that we don’t even know any longer what good beef looks like. It has become subjected to this wholesale idea that everything that is sold must be FRESH, or at least LOOK fresh (‘shop appeal!”), so it has to look as if it has come straight from the slaughter.
I think you need to be fair and not lump ALL supermarkets together. I work at a very small grocery store (we only have 2 stores), and our meat department really does butcher the meat every day. The day-old meat gets sold at a discount, and with coupons, and is usually brownish in color. I can’t even begin to tell you how UPSET customers get when they can’t get perfectly red meat at our store! I think readers need to remember to research where they buy their meats, and ask how everything is done, where orders come from. I can’t verify to the “quality” of our meats, since it is grain-fed, but it is always FRESH.
Everyine should know that local anything is NOT a surpermarket. I wish there were still many local, and family owned and operated markets around. Unfortunately..there are not..too bad.
So is that why when I buy hamburger from the store the outside is bright red, but when I break it up the inside is brown? I always wondered why the inside would turn brown first and not the outside. Thanks for the informative article.
I think they have started spraying all of it now as it comes out of the grinder. I noticed the last time I checked my hamburger meat that this time the inside was all red where typically if I had waited a couple of days the inside was brown.
Interesting. In the last six months or so, in the UK a couple of the big supermarkets have started vacuum packing meat and all the meat is now a dark brown. Although I think they are more concerned with cutting the packaging;-)
I still use my butcher though and lovely local Jersey beef – yum
Karma has funny ways of catching up with people sometimes.
First of all, I’m curious to know where you came up with the statistic that 70% of supermarket meat is treated with carbon monoxide. I`m not saying that your statistic is wrong, because I don`t know – but you need to substantiate the claims that you make.
Second, the meat is treated with carbon monoxide to reduce spoilage, not to provide the red colour. The red colour is a side effect of the process, because the carbon monoxide bonds with the naturally-occurring myoglobin in the meat.
Third, you imply that by eating carbon monoxide-treated meat you are actually eating carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a gas. As soon as you open the package, the small amount of gas in the package will mix with the air around it and dissipate, and the portion of the carbon monoxide that has bonded with the myoglobin in the meat is no longer carbon monoxide anyway. The new compound is called carboxymyoglobin.
Fourth, even if you were in fact able to eat carbon monoxide gas (and it would be interesting to see you try), you should know that eating something is not the same as breathing it in. For example, eating a chili pepper will not have the same effect on you as breathing in bear spray which, as you no doubt know, is aerosolized chili peppers.
Fifth, supermarkets are required to put a “best before“ date on the packaging of meat that has been treated with carbon monoxide, so that there is no doubt about how long the meat can be safely kept in the refrigerator before cooking and eating it..
Sixth, if supermarkets were in fact selling rotten meat on a widespread basis, we would certainly hear about it in the media. a) people who noticed the awful smell would be returning the meat by the cartload, and b) any people who actually did eat the meat would be sick – and I don`t mean just a little tummy-ache. People would die. Either way, the media would have a field day.
Lastly, if you think that the local butcher has freshly-butchered meat in his meat cases at all times, you are simply wrong. Freshly-slaughtered beef, for example, is left to hang for at least 14 days in cold storage before being cut up into steaks and so on. It tenderizes the meat.
Maybe you should stop obsessing about what might be wrong with the food you eat and start to think about being thankful that you live in a country where there are refrigeration facilities readily available at all times, not to mention food regulations that help to keep our food supply safe to eat. Or how about being thankful that you have more than enough to eat every day, and a vast variety of different foods to choose from at the grocery store? There are many people in the world who are not so fortunate – or so rich – as you are.
Sources are provided at the end of the article.
Yes, but one of your three sources cites another one of your three sources, and all of them are opinions, blogs or magazine columns – not research.
This leads me to believe that you really have no idea whether your statistic of 70% is true or not.
Oh, I forgot, “opinions, blogs or magazine columns” are not valid because …?
What keeps the reporting (opinion) of a dedicated consumer advocate who does the proper research from being valid? Did you even bother to check the sources cited *by* those authors? Much of the research cited is from government agencies–both foreign and domestic. How about the Los Angeles Times, Consumer Reports, and the San Francisco Chronicle? Maybe you’d believe the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health? They’re cited.
No, Sir or Madam MJ, YOUR opinions are the ones I must question: Will you come clean about ALL of your connections to the meat processing industry?
I do agree that we should all be thankful to live in America; however, we must remember that the America in which we live today is a FAR CRY from what the Founding Fathers envisioned (reference the above Web site article).
Notice what George Washington said during his famous Farewell Address in 1796: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”
Unfortunately, America is no longer supported by the great pillars of religion and morality, so we must have vigilant watchmen to show the folly and danger of the greed and lack of human concern exhibited by Big Industry, Big Pharma, Big Meat/Poultry, and virtually every other conglomerate in American life today.
I, for one, am grateful for Sarah Pope and others like her who at least are in the fray; watching, warning, and trying to make America a little safer place in which to raise our children. God bless her and others like her, since it’s painfully obvious that He will no longer bless America because we have forgotten Him. This will not change until every American, as Benjamin Franklin (a self-proclaimed NON-churchgoer) admonished, does his best to “imitate Jesus.”
Sorry, I thought the Web site URL I referenced above would show up with the comment. Since it didn’t, here is is:
https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/9114.7934.0.0/society/law/why-character-matters
Oh dear – you caught me! I’m a 52-year-old independent bookkeeper from Canada. I’m a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 1, and the big secret about my connection to the meat processing industry is that I eat meat.
Opinions are fine, as far as they go – but they aren’t facts. And the only opinion I expressed was that Sarah should stop obsessing over food and be grateful. Everything else I said was information I easily found on the internet or is just basic common sense.
Also note that the one source that does say 70% says “it is speculated” — aka we made this up — and that it’s 70% of beef and chicken (not red meat).
I enjoyed the source that pointed out that these “facts” are being promulgated by a company that sells the currently-popular product for keeping meat red for longer, which would be devastated by the CO packaging.
A,
What is beef if not “red meat”?
Also, speculation does not imply that the statistics were “made up,” only that they weren’t exact. There are bases for them, but the data may be impossible to fully track, so it must be estimated. Can YOU visit every grocery store and butcher shop in America to get an exact count? If so, statistical analysis principles would indicate that the count would have changed while you were counting.
While I, too, would like to know just *who* did the speculation, the fact that it is speculated to be OVER 70% still means that, at the least, over 50% of our meat is being packaged this way–and that’s enough to be misleading and alarming.
MJ,
The fact that opinions may not necessarily be facts does not, of itself, make those opinions invalid; especially when they are based on facts.
Regarding your *opinion* that Sarah is “obsessing” over food, thank God that she and others do! It is my *opinion* that too few people worry about the food we eat, and that is precisely why America and all “developed” countries are experiencing epidemic obesity, cancer, ASDs, and so many other man-made or man-aggravated diseases.
If you wish to point out specific factual errors, fine, but Ad Hominem attacks are uncalled for and do not move the dialogue forward in any constructive way.
MJ,
Excuse me, but I don’t see *YOUR* sources for the claims you make! You made six assertions in your original post and yet did not list a single source, report, study, journal article or the like to back up your claims.
Are you now of the *opinion* that it’s okay for YOU to claim your assertions are “easily found on the internet or [are] just basic common sense” and that we should blindly accept them? So YOUR assertions are to be believed, but not those of investigative reporters and authors who are active in this type of work everyday?
I find the thought ludicrous. Please go attack someone else’s well-intentioned-even-if-not-perfect work. Oh, wait… . On second thought, don’t. Be part of the solution instead of the problem. Learn what the powers that be are doing to the common people and help fight the good fight against man’s inhumanity to man.
MJ .. the article states that “as much as 70%” of supermarket meat is treated with CO. This is an industry estimate. The problem is that CO treatment of meat has been given GRAS status (Generally Recognized as Safe) by the FDA so no one knows the EXACT amount as it doesn’t have to be reported and companies keep it as secret as they can (for good reason). Hope that helps. Tuna, by the way, is also treated with CO.
If your so sure that the US meat industry is safe then why is horse meat being found in packages marked beef? Among other issues that have happened. It is not foolproof. And yes markets have been known to sell spoiled meat. They take it out of what it was first packed in then they repack it with a new date on it and try and sell it. Markets that cater to lower income families do this quite often is it right no do they get caught sometimes. Also many stores will freeze meat just before it’s sell by date so they again can repack it with a new sell by date on it once thawed out again. Now this practice is ok. I’ve seen so many markets do this especially with fish and poultry. You are putting way too much faith int eh US govt that they actually care about the people. And that supermarkets don’t do immoral practices just to turn a buck and that they will always get caught if they do something wrong. Wake up and take your blinders off
1. horse meat is not inherently unsafe to eat – just a cultural no-no in North America. People in France eat and enjoy horsemeat. Mislabelling the packaging is another matter. People should be able to rely on what the packaging label tells them is inside. It’s called “truth in advertising”.
2. I certainly don’t think that the US meat industry is fool-proof, but as I said before – people who eat rotten meat get sick, and if all stores were regularly selling rotten meat then someone would notice – and the media would have a field day. Sarah is not talking about isolated markets, she is painting all supermarkets and the entire meat industry with the same brush. This is sensationalistic and over-simplified.
What ever way you look at it, if you buy a product from a company that says 100% beef and find out that there is horse in it . You should be able to get compensation from this company as if you wanted horse , you would buy horse .
To me finding horse in my food is disgusting and very upsetting, like finding your pet dog or cat in your food .
Also most of the horse found in 100% British Burgers came from Romania where the people were made to get rid of there Nags by the Romanian government to modernise the roads and transport . Food and glue , nice hay . X
MJ…………..well said. People have so much anymore that it has caused them to go nuts.
Love this comment! Thank you! I wish all this stuff would be answered so aptly!
I can confirm that Giant and Safeway stores sell rotten meat and fish on a regular basis. Especially now, they sell on-line rotten foodstuff. The smell is terrible, like in a morgue (dead-house). Often there are no “best before” prints, shelf life is extremely too long. What we are eating?
Just bought and ate cube steaks that were marked way down but had a funny pink red color, now a little sick. Knew the pink red color was suspicious. Done with meat if it’s being played with like our government plays with us.
Wow Karen I mean MJ first of all,,,, it sounds to me the only person obsessed by anything is you! Second,,,, You not getting enough attention lately? Thrid,,,, Poor baby waaaaaa