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Supermarket Pork Injected with Water?

  • 15-01-2011 9:04pm
    #1
    Grimms
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭


    Bulking up supermarket meat with water?

    I was a bit shocked when I roasted a pork loin I bought from "a large Irish supermarket chain". Whilst roasting, it shrank to half the size and the dish filled with water.

    On further inspection (cutting through it) there are hundreds of tiny holes through the meat - it's been injected with water! Indeed, on the back - the ingredients are pork 90%, water and glucose (and some chemicals) 10%.

    I've heard about it being done - a "giant UK store" has admitted to doing it.

    The label on the front just says: Basted Pork. The word "basted" must be the loophole. I had assumed it would be some sort of basting on the outside, but no...

    Am I just being naive, or is this blatantly misleading? If I had known that it wasn't 100% pork, I would've never bought it!


Comments

  • #2
    brianthebard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,165 ✭✭✭✭brianthebard


    It did say basted so I don't think its misleading. If it was regular chicken fillets or a ham fillet then it may have been misleading. There are plenty of hams out there from different brands that aren't basted so you will know for again to look for them instead next time.


  • #3
    Krusty_Clown
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,549 ✭✭✭✭Krusty_Clown


    It is misleading. Basting is something you do to the outside of the meat, injecting is something you do to the inside of the meat.
    They should be called 'Injected Pork Loin'. I'd like to see what that would do to their sales.


  • #4
    Corsendonk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭Corsendonk


    Grimms wrote: »
    Bulking up supermarket meat with water?

    I was a bit shocked when I roasted a pork loin I bought from "a large Irish supermarket chain". Whilst roasting, it shrank to half the size and the dish filled with water.

    On further inspection (cutting through it) there are hundreds of tiny holes through the meat - it's been injected with water! Indeed, on the back - the ingredients are pork 90%, water and glucose (and some chemicals) 10%.

    I've heard about it being done - a "giant UK store" has admitted to doing it.

    The label on the front just says: Basted Pork. The word "basted" must be the loophole. I had assumed it would be some sort of basting on the outside, but no...

    Am I just being naive, or is this blatantly misleading? If I had known that it wasn't 100% pork, I would've never bought it!

    Thats how they bast it. Bast is injected into the cut to provide an even flavour. Same technology is used for some high end flavoured cold meats to ensure the bast flavour enters the meat.

    If you have a problem with water injected in meat my advice would be to avoid chicken used in catering establishments. Hugh Frozen blocks of chicken breast get shipped from thailand and brazil by sea to Holland were 15 of the largest chicken plants in Europe inject a saline solution into the chicken breasts. Majority of this chicken gets used in catering establishments throughout Europe.


  • #5
    User Friendly
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,483 ✭✭✭User Friendly


    Anyone see the dispatches program on channel 4 last night? it revealed the truth about supermarket prawns and fishfood, where they are sourced how they inject a substance into them to increase their weight. i aint ever eating supermarket prawns again:(


  • #6
    the beer revolu
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,403 ✭✭✭✭the beer revolu


    Previously I bought pork chops from "a large Irish supermarket chain" called Tesco which were not labelled as basted or injected but when I got them home I found a little label on the back of the packet stating the water and glucose content. I wrote to Tesco claiming that it was misleading to only put this information on the back of the packet but amazingly they didn't agree.

    Although I now know that "basted" means injected with water and sugar, I do think that the term is extremely misleading.

    Generally, I try to seer clear of mass produced pork in Ireland - it tastes of nothing and is an extremely unpleasant industry compared to beef or lamb rearing.


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  • #7
    kaz_corcoran
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 65 ✭✭kaz_corcoran


    Tesco Value Chicken.. the food of the poor student, I would hazzard a guess at about 30% water. I actually had to pour the water off it while cooking it in a dry pan. Explain that tesco!!


  • #8
    tricky D
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,700 ✭✭✭tricky D


    This has been happening for years, if not decades, and not in a small minority of meats - it's quite common. Here's one article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3006192.stm Pork protein in chicken!!

    Shed loads of other foods get bulked up e.g. emulsifiers in ice creams which mean stabilisers are required to offset the emulsion effect leading to some litres of ice cream being a lot lighter than other litres due to being 'fluffed up' by the emulsion. The there's modified starches, various gums, gels, pectins to name a few. It's not really for the consumer's benefit.


  • #9
    the beer revolu
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,403 ✭✭✭✭the beer revolu


    tricky D wrote: »
    This has been happening for years, if not decades, and not in a small minority of meats - it's quite common. Here's one article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3006192.stm Pork protein in chicken!!

    Shed loads of other foods get bulked up e.g. emulsifiers in ice creams which mean stabilisers are required to offset the emulsion effect leading to some litres of ice cream being a lot lighter than other litres due to being 'fluffed up' by the emulsion. The there's modified starches, various gums, gels, pectins to name a few. It's not really for the consumer's benefit.

    To be fair, I think most people are aware that processed foods are full additives but (wrongly) assume that when they buy a pork chop that it is just pork.


  • #10
    Corsendonk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭Corsendonk


    the beer revolu wrote: »
    To be fair, I think most people are aware that processed foods are full additives but (wrongly) assume that when they buy a pork chop that it is just pork.

    Ahh sure once we are talking about additives etc I might point out that most animal feed bags now have a warning that it may contain GM as its now impossible to gurantee that it doesnt. Most animal feed is produced outside the EU were GM crops are common in the environment and at this time of year farmers use quite alot of feed.


    Tesco are a multinational chain hence the reason they have dropped Ireland from Tesco Ireland now that the Irish consumer have got use to the red white and blue company colours.:D


  • #11
    rubadub
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,386 ✭✭✭✭rubadub


    kaz_corcoran wrote: »
    Tesco Value Chicken.. the food of the poor student, I would hazzard a guess at about 30% water.
    Tesco frozen chicken fillets have soya & water in them and are about 85% meat I think. I don't find their fresh value fillets any more watered down than most other brands (I find them all watery). I just checked a pack there and it is 116kcal and 21.8g protein per 100g raw, which sounds right to me -unless they are lying...


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