Consumer Safety. About the Benefits of Meat Products

 

Discussion about the risks and benefits of meat is one of the most popular topics on the Internet. Expert in meat production from the SUSU Higher School of Medicine and Biology, candidate of technical sciences, Lina Tsirulnichenko, believes that meat is a necessary product for a balanced diet.

– Why should people eat meat?

– Meat is a source of animal proteins and essential amino acids which enter the human body only from food. It is better to have a preference to non-fatty meats – veal, lamb, hare, and so on. However, one problem of today’s meat industry is the use of a large number of products like phosphoric acid salts or functional protein additives, which significantly affect the environmental friendliness and safety of the products.

This relates completely to processed meat products – sausage products, pates, and ready-to-cook foods. The ingredients lists of these products can include various things like slaughterhouse byproducts, skin, animal fat, and shortening, which significantly reduce the dietary value of these ready-to-eat products. In the case of processed products, one guarantee of the quality can be the product’s price – a kilogram of sausage should not cost less than a kilogram of raw meat. In addition, the consumer can always study the ingredients of a product on its label. From this point of view, farmer’s products will be more preferable. Poultry is especially in demand right now. By the amino acid profile, poultry is a sufficiently complete product and can totally replace red meat.

– How should poultry be selected

–  The most accessible for the modern, urbanized consumer is broiler chickens and turkeys. When choosing these meats, you should pay attention to a few things: the bird should be processed well, meaning that there should not be any remains of feathers on the ski; the absence of shade to the skin or hemorrhaging is also a sign of good quality. It’s best not to choose a very large bird, with the exception of turkey – they can be quite hefty.

– What does the ISO symbol on the label mean

– Information on the product label about the use of the international standard ISO 9001 tells the consumer that the manufacturing processes are carefully monitored and controlled at the site, so this product is of better quality.

– Which kind of meat is better to purchase – chilled or frozen?

– Theoretically, the nutritional value of a chilled product will be higher relative to a frozen product, since the product loses a few valuable substances in the freezing process along with its cellular fluid. However, in modern sales networks, meat sold as chilled may be gotten from frozen raw meat. A sign of freezing on the product is moisture on the surface and the presence of meat fluids in the packaging. Sometimes, the loss of the meat fluids is absorbed using special absorbent pads. The consumption of frozen meat is not dangerous for consumers, however prolonged storage and repeated freezing of such a product is not recommended at home.

 

Yilia Uzmova
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