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Kroger quits stocking gas-packaged beef
Red color - FDA petitioner says shoppers can't gauge the freshness of meat packaged with carbon monoxide
FROM STAFF
AND WIRE REPORTS
The Oregonian
February 22, 2006
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.
Kalsec Foods in Kalamazoo, Mich., a maker of natural food extracts, has petitioned the FDA to ban the practice, saying it deceives shoppers who depend on color to help them avoid spoiled meat.
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
Kroger quits stocking gas-packaged beef
Red color - FDA petitioner says shoppers can't gauge the freshness of meat packaged with carbon monoxide
FROM STAFF
AND WIRE REPORTS
The Oregonian
February 22, 2006
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.
Kalsec Foods in Kalamazoo, Mich., a maker of natural food extracts, has petitioned the FDA to ban the practice, saying it deceives shoppers who depend on color to help them avoid spoiled meat.
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
