Last year we sent this information out in a newsletter, but I thought it was worth reviewing again as a reminder for everyone concerned about the quality of the food they eat.

Just last week, we received a newsletter from Daily Health Post about decayed meat being treated with Carbon Monoxide to make it look fresh. I am shocked and saddened that this is still an acceptable practice in grocery stores. According to the report, two-thirds of the beef and chicken packaged for grocery stores in the United States are prepared and packaged at a meat packing plant, then shipped ready to sell to the grocery stores.  

If you shop at Bentley's, you know that our meat, which has no preservatives, starts to turn brown within a few days. Now think about the condition of the meat that is sitting in the grocery store after being packaged and then shipped! Not to mention the shelf life the stores give it. The article says it takes fourteen (14) days from the live animal to the grocery case. If not treated with preservatives, the meat would look disgusting by then. Just take a look at the meat on the left of the photo below. Is this the kind of product you want to feed your family?  

The picture on the left is what a cut of beef looks like after the typical 14-day journey to the store. The picture on the right is how it looks to the customer after being treated with carbon monoxide. Do you want to eat beef treated with Carbon Monoxide?

You've heard it before and I'll say it again; Bentley's All-Natural Butcher Shop's meat is 100% all-natural. This means absolutely no preservatives, no antibiotics, no hormones (no chemicals of any kind). It's easy to overlook the fact that without the preservatives, the meat does not "behave" the same as the supermarket meat with all the added chemicals (preservatives).

Most people have been taught to believe that meat has to be bright red to be fresh, and that "beef turning brown" is an indication of spoilage. Well, that is just not the case. In today's times, it is actually quite the opposite!

Someone actually asked me if our ground chuck came in the tube looking the way it does in the case? I understand this question. People have become conditioned to believe that is all that's available for them. Believing no one actually grinds their own ground chuck anymore! Well, Bentley's All-Natural Butcher Shop DOES! We grind it fresh every day, sometimes several times throughout the day. All our meats are actually the freshest you can buy.

Since our beef has no preservatives and IS all-natural it is sensitive to air and light. Our beef will darken faster than meat at the supermarket (with preservatives). Even though it is darkening it is still excellent, as long as you follow these tips for keeping your meat fresh at home:

• Use or freeze raw meat within three (3) days from purchase (our packaging is "freezer ready).

   

• Keep all perishable meat at 41 degrees or cooler.

• Keep raw meats on the top shelf-this is the coolest part of the refrigerator.

• Keep raw meats well wrapped to prevent leakage and contamination of other foods.

 I encourage you to read the article (reprinted in full below) and also watch the 3-minute video on the website. This is important information for everyone to have! Please pass this on to your friends and family. You can use the "Forward this Email" link at the bottom of the page to send to others.

To your health--

Joe  

Did you ever wonder how the meat sold in the grocery store always looks so fresh?

Have you thought about how long it takes to get from a live animal to the slaughterhouse to the packer to the distributor to the grocery store to the meat case and finally to your dinner plate? (Answer: about fourteen days to the store.)

There's magic in the meat.

Well, not really magic--more like carbon monoxide. Two-thirds of the meat (beef and chicken) packaged for consumer use in the U.S. are prepared and packaged at a meat packing plant that then ships it case-ready for grocery stores. In the process, many packers inject carbon monoxide into the package that surrounds the meat to keep it looking-but not necessarily remaining-fresh.

The carbon monoxide becomes infused in the meat and attaches itself to myoglobin (a kind of intercellular protein) in the meat and oxygen is thereby retained, keeping the meat looking fresh. No one will buy brown meat. The carbon monoxide creates a low-oxygen environment that inhibits the growth of bacteria that cause spoilage.

This all sounds good, though, doesn't it?

Who wouldn't want the meat to be kept looking fresh and free from harmful bacteria?

The issue is the means by which it's done. Carbon monoxide (CO, one carbon atom plus one oxygen atom) is a colorless, odorless, flavorless gas that is lethal to humans in large amounts (think about the warning on a gas furnace or bag of charcoal).

When it is used in meat packaging, CO sticks to hemoglobin (the oxygen carrier in the blood) in the meat and stays there, ready for you to eat it. The meat industry asserts that since it's not inhaled, CO poses no threat to human health when eaten in meat as the result of atmospheric packaging.

Consider this: Clostridium perfringens bacteria are one of the most common causes of food-borne illness. They thrive where there is little oxygen. Enter the meat (and imported fish) that has been treated with CO in the atmospheric packaging process. It's estimated that about half of the meat sold in grocery stores contain this bacteria; where it's found: in the meat subjected to CO treatment.

What makes this even worse is that consumers aren't aware of this practice. There is no labeling on the meat, which would give them a choice.

Natural Alternatives to This Practice

Meat bought at a local butcher shop is not subject to this process. An option (other than vegetarianism) is aged beef. There are two methods of aging: wet and dry. During the wet-aging process, meat is packaged in vacuum-sealed packages and kept under strict environmental conditions for anywhere from three to ninety days before being shipped for retail sale.

The tenderness and flavor of the meat is enhanced by this process due to natural enzymes gently breaking down the muscle fibers. The dry-aging process is a traditional way of curing meat: it is stored uncut on the carcass, again under very strict environmental conditions, and packaged at a particular point in the molecular break-down.[1]

As for chicken and fish: flash frozen and vacuum-packed or fresh from the farm (in the case of poultry) or the ocean (for fish) are better than commercially-packaged.

Article and Video can be found here:  http://dailyhealthpost.com/decayed-meat-treated-carbon-monoxide-look-fresh/