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?
I am almost to the point where I really am considering going meat free. I love fresh meat, but a or really quit a few times, I almost got grossed out, just at the smell of raw meat.
Some of the accusations John made is correct and some you have made are also correct. Most people have accepted that the MAP process is safe and acceptable. USDA ( which is far from perfect) has dates on packaged meat that helps consumers make a better educated choice . But fresh meat packaged in any way shape or form not protected with the MAP process will bring in a very short time. Hours or minutes after processing. Sarah I think it’s nice your barking and getting people aware of nasty practices of the meat industry , but can I ask you to turn your attention to the use of CME in shrimp and chicken? What ever CME is?? Looks like silicone. And the maxi pads glued to the bottom of the foam meat tray? Why does it weigh 1/2 pound? Greed? Lol
Hi Sarah! I was wondering if your written statement in this online article regarding a key ingredient in modified atmospheric packaging, was a typo. On this article you boldly state this key ingredient is “carbon monoxide”. You go on to explain how carbon monoxide is odorless, colorless,and tasteless and how it’s responsible for artificially giving even spoiled meat let alone semi fresh meat its bright red hue. You peaked my interest with such an accusation that the U.S.D.A. would allow such poisoning to part of our food supply. So, I did a little online research and discovered a very factual co-authored and peer reviewed research article on the Wiley Interscience Online Library by two doctors from the Netherlands. They are Dr. E. U. Thoden van Velzen (an organic chemist who delveloped modern protective packaging solutions) and Dr. A. R. Linneman (a food science professor and who is employed at the Department of Agrotechnology in the Netherlands. They are both well established in their scientific fields. They go on to explain the M.A.P. process in great detail and how it’s been around since 1964. They also explain the key ingredients as well! They show that the key gases are “enriched oxygen: 60%-70%”, “CARBON DIOXIDE: 25%-35%”, and nitrogen as a ballast, and how the meat is kept at 4 degrees Celsius/39.2 degrees Fahrenheit during the process. Then cut and packaged into polystyrene trays and plastic wrap and prepared for sale to the public. It vexxes me so because carbon dioxide is what we exhale as human beings and is beneficial to plant life and is in soda water as well. I’m just so stumped that an established economist and author of 3 whole books and over a 1000 articles, and summa cum laude graduate such as ypurself could make such an audacious accusation. It couldn’t be to promote fear mongering for profit among your readers could it?!? I don’t think you would EVER do such a thing. I just thought as a devoted fan of the truth, you would want to make a correction to that “typo”. Please feel free to email me a correspondence or reply if you so wish. I would looooove to hear your rebuttal, if any.
Hey John, your comment does not meet comment policy guidelines due to your insults and false accusation, but I will allow it anyway to respond …. some consumers (me included) do not want to buy OLD MEAT. Plain and simple. We do not appreciate that OLD MEAT is gassed to look like FRESHLY GROUND which we usually pay FULL PRICE for. So whether or not the gas itself is dangerous is not the key point. What these supermarkets (Whole Foods does it too!) are doing is FOOLING the consumer into buying OLD MEAT. Does that make sense to you? I just want to know what I am buying and have an honest establishment grind it fresh on the premises so that they don’t have to gas it to look pretty in packages and fool me into buying a substandard, old, and potentially dangerous product that will quickly go out of date but I won’t know it at home because it is bright red and still looks “fresh” even if it isn’t. That’s why I go to a butcher and why droves of other consumers are seeking the same. Good day to you.
Hi Sarah! Would you be able to cite your references?
Yes … references are linked within the article itself.
I have been buying very red filet mignon. Last two times I are it, tonight being one of them, I got extremely bad insomnia.
I quit buying meats from all the Kroger-owned chains years ago when I bought a ‘family’ pack of steaks for some friends that had that weird pink color to them. When I opened up the package a couple hours and a hundred miles later, the steaks turned out to be brown and rotten, to the point of being inedible. I pretty much only buy meat from the producers any more. Or, surprisingly, I buy whole cuts, like an entire short loin, from Costco, which I then take home, cut up, and freeze. I get the advantage also of being able to portion it out into the right amount for my wife and I. Anyway, supermarket meat is uniformly awful now.
I eat a lot of spicy food. There are most definitely detrimental effects from eating peppers! Just ask my wife!
There is also another chemical powder that they use to add to meat to make it look fresh and bright red. I don’t remember the name but many many markets and butcher shops were caught using it in the late 80’s and very early 90’s. If anyone remembers the name, they should do an article on it because it might still be in use by some markets.
Hi,
I disagree. With this I have worked at kroger meat dept for 9 years and we do not put carbon monoxide in the meats walmart and any store that does not cut meat does.
The gassing occurs before it arrives at your store.
The store I work at cuts meat on the premises. The beef arrives in various large chunks called primal cuts. The primal cuts are a very dark reddish brown when they are unwrapped but after several minutes of exposure to the oxygen in the air, the color “blooms” and they turn the brilliant red color you describe in the article. It requires no help whatsoever to achieve this.
The primal cuts are then cut into steaks and roasts (the dark internal parts of the meat that are exposed by the cut then also undergo the “blooming” process), placed into trays, wrapped in cellophane and immediately transferred to the display case. At no time are they exposed to any substances or gases besides the clean chilled air of the cutting room.
As long as they’ve been properly handled, beef cuts will keep their bright red color up to 4 days, though they usually sell long before then. Occasionally a piece or two will start to discolor prematurely. That’s most likely because a customer put the package in their shopping cart, walked around the store for another hour (which you should never do, ever) and then decided they didn’t want it, so they put it back in the display case without telling anyone.
Any meat in the display case that shows the slightest discoloration is immediately removed and discarded. The result? A beautiful, brightly colored display case, no trickery required. As for what goes on in Walmart and other discount meat departments, I haven’t a clue, but you usually get what you pay for, especially when it comes to fresh meat and seafood.
I have no problem with supporting local businesses, but this is misleading: Number one, the AMOUNT of CO used by the industry is never mentioned, and according to the scientists who research this stuff (as I read briefly in the Journal of Meat Science) found that the CO forms a more stable complex with the red pigment mentioned, which not only really does inhibit bacterial growth (because CO is a nutrient for certain types of bacteria), but also implies that the CO is not free when ingested. Moreover, number two, the article glosses over the facts that there is no evidence of CO being dangerous by ingestion versus inhalation (there are serious differences in the physiology), and the FDA has approved its usage here multiple times. Finally, CO is actually used in your body as a key neurotransmitter. Your claim that this CO treatment prevents the consumer from getting “quality meat,” when in fact neither you nor the article presents evidence to support this is rather pitiable and the truly ignorant thing here. And no, it is not labeled — most likely because of the stigma you present here – and perpetuate by your language – against a, yes, toxic gas that nevertheless has powerful and important NATURAL biochemical properties (of which there are two or three other majors ones, by the way). Thanks for pulling the wool over people’s eyes.