Post Ridiculous Food Industry Obsessions

wow, this thread got really good. great stories all around.

I saw a TV ad last night: "Campbell's soup with lower-sodium sea salt." WTF?

--Andre

Originally Posted by A Y

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I saw a TV ad last night: "Campbell's soup with lower-sodium sea salt." WTF?

--Andre
i'll bet it was "all natural" too.

Originally Posted by foodguy

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i beg to differ with my learned colleague. handling (grinding) is also an issue because it distributes the bacteria throughout the batch. whole cuts are definitely the safest, as you point out, and grinding in massive amounts from many animals (even from many continents in some cases) is definitely a problem. But the simple act of grinding is at the root of it. still, i don't eat many burgers, but when i do, they're fresh-ground, coarse-ground, high-fat and cooked medium-rare.

You are correct in all of this. I would point out though, if a piece of whole meat is contaminated with bacteria and you either a) grind it or b) don't grind it, it's still contaminated with bacteria, right? So if I have a piece of pork shoulder and it's contaminated, it doesn't matter whether I grind it or not, it's contaminated, right? The act of grinding did not contaminate the meat, that happened earlier in the chain of events.

Now, as we both agree, when this tainted piece of meat gets mixed in with a large quantity of untainted meat, we have a big problem. However, on the home kitchen or even a small restaurant level, mixing pieces of meat is not the problem. It's tainted meat, ground or unground.

Once you get to the level where multiple pieces of meat are involved, we're in total agreement. Of course, your risk multiples as the number of pieces of meat in the batch increases.

Originally Posted by A Y

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I saw a TV ad last night: "Campbell's soup with lower-sodium sea salt." WTF?

--Andre

It's funny - I saw that too and wondered wtf

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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You are correct in all of this. I would point out though, if a piece of whole meat is contaminated with bacteria and you either a) grind it or b) don't grind it, it's still contaminated with bacteria, right? So if I have a piece of pork shoulder and it's contaminated, it doesn't matter whether I grind it or not, it's contaminated, right? The act of grinding did not contaminate the meat, that happened earlier in the chain of events.

Now, as we both agree, when this tainted piece of meat gets mixed in with a large quantity of untainted meat, we have a big problem. However, on the home kitchen or even a small restaurant level, mixing pieces of meat is not the problem. It's tainted meat, ground or unground.

Once you get to the level where multiple pieces of meat are involved, we're in total agreement. Of course, your risk multiples as the number of pieces of meat in the batch increases.
My understanding is that there are contaminants on meat surfaces that don't exist on the interiors. When you cook whole pieces these are killed, because the exterior gets very hot. When you grind meat the exterior goes inside and the germs are often not killed at 125 F or whatever temperature.

^ my understanding as well

Originally Posted by gdl203

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^ my understanding as well
If we are right, and I am 99% that we are, you could always get a piece of chuck a little bit bigger than you need (**** is cheap) drop it in boiling water for ten seconds, then ice water and then cut away the scalded parts. It would be totally safe after that. If you tried to peel away the edges without cooking you would have to work really hard not to cross contaminate. Personally, I just don't worry much. I also don't eat that many burgers, but not for safety reasons.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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If we are right, and I am 99% that we are, you could always get a piece of chuck a little bit bigger than you need (**** is cheap) drop it in boiling water for ten seconds, then ice water and then cut away the scalded parts. It would be totally safe after that. If you tried to peel away the edges without cooking you would have to work really hard not to cross contaminate. Personally, I just don't worry much. I also don't eat that many burgers, but not for safety reasons.

yes, that would almost certainly remove the 1 in 100,000 chance that there was a problem. i prefer ignoring (or as some would say, ignorance).

Originally Posted by iammatt

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My understanding is that there are contaminants on meat surfaces that don't exist on the interiors. When you cook whole pieces these are killed, because the exterior gets very hot. When you grind meat the exterior goes inside and the germs are often not killed at 125 F or whatever temperature.

I stand corrected. Learn something new every day. I was focused on the E. coli, which doesn't come from the "meat" at all, but rather the intestinal lumen (as we all know).

Originally Posted by A Y

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I saw a TV ad last night: "Campbell's soup with lower-sodium sea salt." WTF?

--Andre

That was the least of it, you must have missed when the part when they mentioned the "real sauterne wine" in there. It is probably d'Yquem, but they didn't want to come off as pretentious.

The real Sauternes on its way to the Campbell factory:

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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I stand corrected. Learn something new every day. I was focused on the E. coli, which doesn't come from the "meat" at all, but rather the intestinal lumen (as we all know).

just for the sake of clarity ... this is exactly the case, but it is in the slaughter process when some of this gets "spilled" on the surface of the meat that causes the problem.

local squirrel with red wine and juniper

and a great video demonstration too

I can't wait until things like "local" produce and farmers markets are expected rather than some douchey thing that's celebrated by obnoxious yuppies.