This one is for the meat lovers!

Most of us might not be aware of this, but meat sellers, and restaurants around the U.S. are using Transglutaminase or “Meat Glue” to glue meat scraps together to sell them as top quality steak cutlets.  This is also the case for some seafood, chicken, lamb and pork meats in the market as well!

 According to Answers.com:

In commercial food processing, transglutaminase is used to bond proteins together. Examples of foods made using transglutaminase include imitation crab meat, and fish balls. It is produced by Streptoverticillium mobaraense fermentation in commercial quantities or extracted from animal blood, and is used in a variety of processes, including the production of processed meat and fish products.
Transglutaminase can be used as a binding agent to improve the texture of protein-rich foods such as surimi or ham.
Transglutaminase is often used in these applications:

• Improving texture of emulsified meat products, such as sausages and hot dogs.
• Binding different meat parts into a larger ones (“portion control”), such as in restructured steaks. Transglutaminase is one of several forms of “meat glue”.
• Improving the texture of low-grade meat such as so-called “PSE meat” (pale, soft, and exudative meat, whose characteristics are attributed to stress and a rapid postmortem pH decline)
• Making milk and yogurt creamier
• Making noodles firmer

The manufacturers of this product seem to think that it has amazing properties since users are able to maximize the sales of meats and reduce waste.

Although the FDA considers it “generally recognized as safe”, this enzyme has been known to cause blood clots in the body.

Not only is that a factor but there are also bacteria in glued meat that will not be killed if the meat is eaten rare or medium rare, this of course puts customers in a danger zone and makes them vulnerable to getting food poisoning.

So are you eating glued meat? Well, that will probably be unknown, since the meat manufacturers are not required to list tranglutaminase when used in meats.  Our only suggestion is to shop organic when buying meats and ask questions, since you are paying for good quality meats.

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