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Tag: meat

  • Mexican World Cup Players Banned From Beef, Chemical In Meat Could Trigger Drug Tests

    Mexican world cup players were recently banned from eating beef. Why? As it turns out, red meat has a lot to do with doping.

    Mexico’s world cup coach Miguel Herrera says that he has banned his players from eating red meat until the World Cup is over. The team is being cautious ever since some players tested positive for clenbuterol during the 2011 Gold Cup. As it turns out, clenbuterol is a muscle-building drug used in people and animals. When red meat is eaten, it can trigger the drug tests that look for the drug.

    The USDA has banned the use of clenbuterol in animals, and most other civilized nations have followed suit. Mexico is not one of those nations though. The country says it uses the drug to fatten up its cattle. It’s also frequently used as a performance enhancing drug in the sports world which is where the current concern stems from. A number of athletes over the years have been barred from competing after it was found they used clenbuterol to build muscle.

    This puts Mexico in a unique position. The country is one of the only major nations that uses the drug in its food supply and yet it’s use is banned by all the major sports associations. Back in 2011, FIFA found that over 100 competitors at the Under-17 World Cup in Mexico tested positive for the drug after consuming meat in the country.

    While players haven’t been eating beef for a few weeks, one of the players may be flagged. Miguel Ponce was called in to replace the injured Juan Carlos Medina. Since he wasn’t originally going to play, he wasn’t banned from eating meat. He claims to have eaten a few tacos before he was placed on the team, but he hopes he doesn’t get flagged for the drug before the game.

    Besides Ponce, the Mexican World Cup players should be fine as they prepare for their first match against Cameroon on June 13. The team will then play against Brazil on June 17 and Croatia on June 23.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons
    [h/t: USA Today]

  • Wal-Mart Recalls Tainted Donkey Meat In China

    Wal-Mart is recalling donkey meat at some of its stores in China. Donkey meat may not appeal to some Western palates, but in China they eat donkey. Tests revealed that donkey meat which was sold to Chinese consumers contained DNA of other animals.

    Wal-Mart’s China CEO, Greg Foran said, “We are deeply sorry for this whole affair. It is a deep lesson (for us) that we need to continue to increase investment in supplier management.”

    On Wednesday, Wal-Mart announced that it will refund customers who purchased the contaminated donkey meat. The company is now working with Eastern Shandong food inspectors to investigate it’s Chinese suppliers.

    China is a country that has suffered rampant tainted food scandals, and scares like this one are a big deal. Recently, KFC’s chicken supplier, Yum Brands, saw a steep decline in sales after it was found to be using high levels of antibiotics in its meat products.  Wal-Mart is now concerned that it may lose consumer confidence in China. This could become a big problem for Wal-Mart given that the company is jockeying for market share against retailers like Sun Art Retail Group Ltd and China Resources Enterprise Ltd.  China represents a $1 trillion dollar food market in which Wal-Mart plans to add 110 new stores to the 400 facilities they currently have in the country.

    According to China’s livestock industry, nearly 2.5 million donkeys were slaughtered in 2011. This makes donkey meat a relatively popular food in China.

    This is not the first food safety issue Wal-Mart has had in China. It was fined in 2011 for selling duck meat past its expiration.

    Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, will likely need to do some damage control —  quickly. Word is already spreading fast in Chinese social media and some consumers are starting to have a negative perception of the company.

    Image via Wikipedia

    Donkey Meat Restaurant in China

  • Almost All Chicken Breasts Shown to Contain Harmful Bacteria

    Chicken is one of the most widely eaten meats in the U.S. and around the world, but it could also be one of the most dangerous.

    Consumer Reports this week revealed the results of its recent tests of meat and poultry, showing that nearly all of the U.S. chicken breasts it tested were contaminated with some sort of harmful bacteria.

    Of the 316 raw chicken breasts examined in the survey, 97% of them were found to have harmful bacteria. Nearly 80% of the breasts had enterococcus, 65% of them had E.coli, 43% had campylobacter, over 13% had klebsiella pneumonia, nearly 11% had salmonella, and 9% had staphylococcus detected on them.

    In addition to the harmful bacteria, the report shows that chicken farming may be significantly be contributing to the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Half of the chicken breasts tested in the study were found to have at least one strain of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Most of the resistances seen in the chicken were related to antibiotics used in chicken farming.

    The FDA has recently announced a plan to heavily restrict the use of antibiotics in food animals, especially the practice of using antibiotics to promote animal growth.

    “Our tests show consumers who buy chicken breast at their local grocery stores are very likely to get a sample that is contaminated and likely to get a bug that is multidrug resistant. When people get sick from resistant bacteria, treatment may be getting harder to find,” said Urvashi Rangan, executive director of Food Safety and Sustainability at Consumer Reports. “Our survey also shows that consumers are making buying decisions based on label claims that they believe are offering them additional value when that is not in fact the case. The marketplace clearly needs to change to meet consumer expectations.”

  • FDA to Tackle Antibiotic Use in Food Animals

    The practice of using antibiotics in farm animals has been debated for decades now. Farms will often put antimicrobials into the feed or water of animals bound for the dinner table to enable faster growth using less feed. Critics have argued that these antibiotics could have a dangerous effect on humans who eat the animals, and the U.S. government is now getting involved.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a plan to phase out the use of “medically important” antimicrobial drugs in food animals. The plan would end the use of such drugs for animal food production and tightly control them for veterinary uses.

    Specifically, the FDA’s plan calls for animal pharmaceutical companies to revise the use conditions of their products on product labels. In addition, the FDA would like to end the over-the-counter status of such drugs, meaning veterinarian approval would be needed for disease treatment with the drugs. The FDA is calling for pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily implement these changes, and is giving companies three years to transition their products to comply.

    “Implementing this strategy is an important step forward in addressing antimicrobial resistance,” said Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the FDA. “The FDA is leveraging the cooperation of the pharmaceutical industry to voluntarily make these changes because we believe this approach is the fastest way to achieve our goal. Based on our outreach, we have every reason to believe that animal pharmaceutical companies will support us in this effort.”

    The medically important drugs targeted by the plan are those also used to treat humans. Researchers in recent years have seen a rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The phenomenon is caused primarily by the overuse of antibiotics, which creates pressure for resistant bacteria to evolve and thrive. The CDC estimated this year that at least 23,000 American each year die from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

  • 3D Printed Meat May Be The Future Of Food

    3D Printed Meat May Be The Future Of Food

    One of the most exciting movements in 3D printing these days is the idea that we can create human tissue. In an equally amazing innovation, the same technology can be applied to animal tissue. As such, some researchers are now looking into how we may be able to artificially grow beef and other meats to prevent animal overpopulation.

    In a recent TED Talk, Andras Forgacs, co-founder and CEO of Modern Meadow, talks about his firm’s aspirations to grow meat and leather in a lab. The process requires researchers to take cells from living animals and then growing those cells until they can be assembled into meat. This may then lead to researchers being able to 3D print meat.

    In the below video, Forgacs says that his company is currently making lab-grown leather. He shows off the very first samples of this leather and says that it being grown in a lab allows researchers to control aspects of its production that can’t be done with normal leather production. For example. lab-grown leather can be cultured to be completely transparent, or soft to the touch.

    If any of this sounds too far out for you, just remember that humans have already eaten lab-grown meat. The first lab-grown hamburger was served back in August. The taste testers reported that it tasted like meat, but was lacking in the fat that provides much of the texture and flavor in current meat products.

    [Image: TED]

  • Oscar Mayer Bacon Dogs Now A Reality

    Oscar Mayer Bacon Dogs Now A Reality

    The “105-year-old bacon lady” is going to love this. Oscar Mayer revealed over the weekend that it is now making “Bacon Dogs”. These are hot dogs made partially with bacon. To be exact, they’re made with turkey, chicken, pork and bacon, but they’re called bacon dogs, so hopefully they live up to their name.

    Given that bacon is possibly the Internet’s favorite food, it seems that this should generate some excitement.

    Last week, a story about a 105-year-old bacon-loving woman went viral when Oscar Mayer took her for a ride in their Weinermobile. Of course, this was only the latest in a series of old-people-and-meat campaigns from the company.

  • $325,000 Burger Is The Future Of Meat Production

    Would you pay $325,000 for a burger? Probably not. It’s hard to get anybody to pay more than a dollar for a burger these days, but one researcher hopes that its $325,000 burger will one day be cheap enough for the mass market.

    The New York Times has a fascinating report on Dr. Post, a researcher that is attempting to make the first in vitro hamburger. In other words, he is growing edible beef in a petri dish. It’s real beef too as it’s grown from actual beef cells collected from cows.

    Dr. Post and his research team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands are almost ready to present the first lab grown burger to the world. It’s comprised of 20,000 strips of lab grown muscle tissue combined together to form a single burger. The cost of those 20,000 strips is the aforementioned $325,000 provided by an anonymous donor with the final result being prepared for an event in London.

    So, why exactly are we creating “fake” meat? There’s beef made from cow that millions around the world enjoy every day, and then there’s soy-based burgers for vegetarians and vegans. What need could in vitro meat possibly fulfill? In short, it’s more of an environmental move as cows meant for slaughter consume untold amounts of grain and water every year. By reducing the amount of cows needed for meat production, we could increase the amount of water and grain that can go to impoverished countries instead.

    It also has the potential to be a healthier alternative to beef cut from a cow. Although, the health benefits may be outright ignored as people come to grips with the idea of eating food that’s grown in a lab. Some would argue that it’s not much different than eating beef from cows that have been injected with artificial growth hormones, but it will take time for consumers to get used to the idea of eating in vitro meat.

    That being said, the meat being prepared by Dr. Post and his team won’t be in supermarkets for quite some time. Somebody this year will get to eat the first lab grown hamburger, but they will have to pay $325,000 for the opportunity. Until that price can be reduced to less than $10 for a pack of eight patties, you’re not going to see meat labeled as lab grown.

  • Lion Tacos Pulled After Restaurant Generates Controversy

    There was a time when you could go into a restaurant in Tampa and get yourself some lion meat tacos. Those days are now behind us. Taco Fusion has reportedly pulled lion from the menu after causing a media stir.

    “There’s nothing like eating a predator to make you feel like a predator,” said one patron in the above Fox News report.

    “They’re surprisingly tasty,” another said about lions.

    Surprisingly, nobody said, “It’s like eating a cat, because that’s what it is.”

    As you can see from the video, otter and beaver were also on the menu. It’s unclear whether they’re still serving these meats, but here’s a page from their online menu, which indicates you should still have no problem getting a kangaroo taco:

    (image)

    Also, they deliver.

  • ‘105-Year-Old Bacon Woman’ The Latest Oscar Mayer ‘Old People And Meat’ Campaign

    A 105-year-old woman who loves bacon has gone viral. Pearl Cantrell, apparently eats bacon for every meal, and even tries to convince her family and friends to eat more.

    Naturally, Oscar Mayer saw an opportunity to use her as something of a mascot for its bacon products, and gave her a ride in the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. From WIVB.com:

    “We’ve seen a lot of stories on the road, but nothing quite like this one. So we’re excited to be here,” said Abraham Luna, a “hotdogger” for Oscar Mayer. “We know she’s an inspiration. Pearl is an inspiration for the community and her friends and family.”

    Hitting the streets of her hometown of Richland Springs, Pearl is riding “shot-bun” in the Wienermobile, waiving to several generations of people that she’s seen grow up throughout the years.

    I’m not sure what weiners have to do with bacon, but anything for the brand, I guess. Oscar Mayer has of course been hitting social media promoting the whole thing:

    Even before that, Oscar Mayer was running old people-related meat marketing campaigns. In fact, just less than a week ago, the company tweeted out this “#TransparentGrandpa” video:

    Grandpas and deli fresh ham.

    I guess we know which demographic Oscar Mayer is focusing on these days.

  • Here’s A Meat-And-Olive Ndamukong Suh (And A BBQ Chicken Jarvis Jones)

    You know those Subway commercials with all the athletes? Did you know that when you’re one of Subway’s athletes, you get a sandwich bust in your likeness?

    Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones is the latest to enter into this tradition. Detroit Lions DT Ndamukong Suh shares this, along with a memory of his old bust, on Facebook, saying, “Welcome to the Subway fam Jarvis Jones! I remember mine like it was yesterday!!!!”

    The img.ly post comes with the caption:

    Welcome to the family @sacmanjones_29 ! I remember mine like it was yesterday! #FamousFan @subway #smokehousebbqchicken sculpture

    Jones is also showing his sandwich pride, tweeting out some different angles as captured with Instagram:

    (image)

    Why don’t they put these in the commercials? These are much better than this actual Smokehouse BBQ Chicken ad from Subway:

    At least they’re actively promoting the sandwich art on social media (and in interviews):

  • Sausage Recalled by Smithfield Packing

    Sausage Recalled by Smithfield Packing

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced that the Smithfield Packing Company is recalling around 38,000 pounds of pork sausage. In a statement, the FSIS said that the meat could contain “small pieces of plastic,” which “likely” come from gloves.

    The recalled products are one-pound “chubs” of Gwaltney mild pork sausage roll that have a use-by date of March 12, 2013 and cases of the same type of sausage roll that have a case code of 78533109741.

    The meat was packaged on January 11 of this year and have been shipped to 11 states and the District of Columbia. The states are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

    Smithfield discovered the contamination after it received two separate complaints from customers. So far, there have been no reported injuries due to the plastic pieces.

    Located in Smithfield, Virginia, the Smithfield Packing Company was founded in 1936. It has been shipping pork products since that time and is one of the largest meat companies in the U.S.

  • Horse Meat in School Meals Found in the U.K.

    The U.K.‘s Food Standards Agency (FSA) today revealed that horse meat was found during the DNA testing of beef products. The beef products tested would have been found in school and restaurant meals.

    The DNA testing, so far, covers 2,501 samples. Of these, 29 of the samples were found to be positive for presence of horse DNA at or above the level of 1%.

    “Since this incident began on 16 January, businesses have been carrying out a large number of tests,” said Catherine Brown, FSA Chief Executive. “We said that industry should share those results with us, and the public, and we asked for the first results to be with us today. The results so far date from when businesses began their testing four weeks ago. They include results which were received by companies up to around 10am this morning.”

    Companies were asked to test composite beef products, such as burgers. The FSA report shows that horse meat was found in beef burgers, beef lasagne, and spaghetti bolognese.

    Though those 29 positive samples make up less than 2% of all the samples tested, that’s still too much for the FSA.

    “We’ve asked industry to test for horse DNA down to a level of 1%,” said Brown. “There are two reasons for this. First, that’s a pragmatic level above which we think any contamination would be due to either gross incompetence or deliberate fraud; it’s not going to be accidental. Second, some laboratories can only test accurately down to a level of 1%.

    “But that does not mean that we’re not concerned with, or that we accept, levels below 1%. In terms of faith groups, there remains a significant issue about trace levels of other species below 1%. So we have a separate programme of work under way with Defra to look at the issues around that, too.”

    The horse meat scandal in the U.K. began in January, when horse meat was found in beef products sold in Ireland.

    Though the cases were not explicitly linked to the horse meat scandal, police this week have arrested several individuals from the Peter Boddy Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Police have also conducted related raids in Hull and Tottenham, where they collected “computers and documentary evidence”, as well as “meat samples.”

  • AgLocal Rep Rides Reddit’s Internet 2012 Tour Bus

    Judging by the Internet 2012 Bus Tour panel discussion held yesterday in Lexington, Kentucky, everyone on the tour bus believes an open internet can change just about every type of business.

    Robert Roderick, head of product technology for AgLocal, spoke with WebProNews about how AgLocal is hoping to change meat industry over the next few years.

    AgLocal is a technology platform that seeks to connect local pasture-raised meat producers, wholesalers, and retailers with more distribution channels that aren’t normally available to them. The company is less that 8 months old, but has been backed by Marc Ecko and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Roderick also said the company is getting attention from some big clients (billion-dollar retail restaurants) that he couldn’t disclose.

    “We created an online platform so local farms can go to this platform and put their meat for sale,” said Roderick. “Then distributors and retailers can go on this platform and purchase this meat.”

    The process isn’t all about how meat is bought and sold, though. AgLocal, according to Roderick wants consumers to know exactly where the meat they are eating comes from.

    “End consumers can come to our platform, find out what retailers, grocery stores, or restaurants are serving this meat and find out exactly where this meat is coming from,” said Roderick. “They can find out the history of the farm.”

    The platform will also put more control in the hands of local farmers by digitizing payments through Dwolla. Farmers will also be able to manage their livestock inventory through AgLocal, enabling them to get better prices for their meat.

    Judging by Roderick’s statements, AgLocal will also follow how the animals are treated before slaughter. He related an anecdote about an AgLocal farm in California that cared for its pigs enough to put aloe on their skin to prevent sunburns, weeks before they were scheduled to die.

    “You will not get that type of commitment to an animal is big ag,” said Roderick. “You will get that type of commitment in small, local farms. And that’s what this is about, it’s about local, small farms who aren’t getting these government subsidies.”

    Roderick stated that AgLocal’s goal is no less than to change the way Americans eat meat. Ambitious, sure, but everyone on the Internet 2012 bus tour was flush with a drive to use the internet and the communities it forms to change the way established industries work. It isn’t inconceivable that AgLocal could change agriculture in the U.S., given the aggregative power of the internet.

    “What’s crazy is that it may cost a little more to use AgLocal, but in the long run – of the United States and the way that we do meat farming – it’s more sustainable, it makes everybody more money, and it saves money,” said Roderick. “AgLocal is about responsible farming, healthier meat, and keeping more money in local economies.”

  • SHMEAT: The Lab-Grown Meat We May Get To Eat This Year

    SHMEAT: The Lab-Grown Meat We May Get To Eat This Year

    Finally, we will likely have the chance to eat test-tube meat. Soon!

    Wait, what? That grosses you out? Hah, really? C’mon! It’s only shmeat: lab-grown in vitro meat, and it’s not fake meat. It’s meatsie meat. Food Safety News describes:

    In vitro or cultured meat is not imitation meat — like all those vegetable-protein products that don’t taste anything like beef or chicken. In vitro or lab-grown meat is animal flesh, except it never was part of a living animal.

    Seriously, how does lab-grown meat not sound amazing? This is your finest Kobe steak marinated in Future and seasoned with a little bit of starlight. If you’re still not sold on it, check out this delightful little video to whet your appetite:

    The thing is, meat grown in a lab already exists. It is here. Scientists, like anybody who ever creates anything that will change civilization forever, are merely deliberating on how to make the test tube meat “commercially feasible,” i.e., profitable. Food Safety News reports that there are approximately 30 labs around the world who have been at work developing in vitro meat. As labs have begun “attracting investments and research talent from around the world,” the possibility of shmeat on our shelves soon becomes all the more likely.

    People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) likes the shmeaty future because they hope it will spare animals pain and suffering. That’s all well and good, but this could radically improve the quality of life for vertebrates more dear to our hearts: humans. Readily grown meat in untold quantities could change the concept of hunger in the future. Animals live, people live – everybody has cake. As you may predict, humans of today had mixed reactions about this delicacy of tomorrow.

    @ConspiracyWATCH
    Con$pira¢y Curator    This is really sick! RT @mediamonarchy Lab-Grown Meat? $1 Million Reward Deadline Nears http://t.co/OxaXl4GZ 7 hours ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto

    @findlocalfood
    BigBarn    http://t.co/Dp7vcy63 I think the whole debate of lab grown meat is fantastic! Because it makes people think about meat and where it… 9 hours ago via LinkedIn · powered by @socialditto

    @BeeRad21
    B. Luchene    “Lab-Grown Meat Feeds the World”: A zany idea that could very well come true by 2022: http://t.co/BbGJLpF5 1 day ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @thelowestdown
    Maybe Josh O’Berski    tomorrow’s farms will be labs with vats of twitching muscle cells. the question is: would you eat it? http://t.co/xho8LxIs 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @gtgyals
    GTGYAL    Time to b/c veg “Scientists Grow Meat in Labs: Scientists have solved the riddle of making animal flesh in a lab, … http://t.co/jwo1USi3“ 53 minutes ago via Twitter for Android · powered by @socialditto

    @starbie
    Starbie    @coasttocoastam making meat in a lab proved possible, but will it kill us in the end? 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPad · powered by @socialditto

    @Bram_X_phile
    Bram Michaelson    Franken meat!
    Scientists Grow Meat in Labs:
    Scientists have solved the riddle of making animal flesh in a lab, bit.ly/z2xC8n 4 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @missyhiggins
    Missy Higgins    @dave_james Wow never heard of In Vitro meat! If there’s no cruelty involved I’m all for it tho it sounds pretty gross! http://t.co/51fqBc5s 15 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    The real question here isn’t whether shmeat will be created – it will be, if it hasn’t definitively been created already – and not even if people will eat it. The question is, will people like it? What a tragic irony that would be if we the people were so fatally attached to overly salty and steroid-bleeding meat that we find 100% pure, uncompromised meat to be so unpalatable that we simply reject it.

    Wouldn’t surprise me, really.

    Honestly, if it tastes like meat and smells like meat and has a texture like meat and is biologically identical to meat why wouldn’t you try this stuff at least once? Would you? Pipe up in the comments and let us know if you would (or wouldn’t) and why.