EndAllDisease
Member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2014
- Messages
- 195
I'm writing about the aging process of beef on the website I built for a local farm and noticed something troubling about the information that's out there about wet aging.
This particular farm raises their cattle on 100% grass through intensive rotational grazing methods on pasture. As we know from Ray's work and researching nutrition in an evidence-based fashion, animal and animal food consumption is essential for human beings just as it has always been.
As I wrote about in a recent article, unless we switch to this kind of beef production, which builds topsoil, the UN estimates we've got less than 60 years left until extinction due to soil erosion from conventional agriculture. But those are just side notes.
The real matter I want to address in this thread is meat aging. (I know that from Ray's article below not aging animals at all is probably ideal, but if you're going to age an animal I think it's clear that dry aging for brief period is far better than the recently developed process of wet aging).
Conventionally raised livestock is 'wet aged', a process which wikipedia describes as:
All that's said about this method is that it's vaccuum packed and allowed to age during transit - but if what Ray Peat has written about wet aging in Meat Physiology, Stress and degenerative physiology, then it appears the food industry/government are doing a very good job at keeping the public from knowing what is really being done to the meat that's available in stores.
Ray writes:
"At present, the US Department of Agriculture, through the mass media and funding the training of food technologists and "meat scientists," now takes the position that it is natural for meat to leak water after it is packaged, and says it is perfectly legal for meat producers to soak the meat in water with chemicals until it has increased its weight by 8%. The chemicals, such as trisodium phosphate (in a solution strength as high as 12%), are chosen because they powerfully stimulate swelling and water retention. Considerable amounts of some chemicals, such as sodium citrate, are allowed to add to the weight of the meat. The use of ozone and hydrogen peroxide to deodorize meat causes instantaneous oxidative changes, including lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyl formation, as well as increasing water retention."
Source: Meat physiology, stress, and degenerative physiology.
All the public is being told about wet aging is that it's meat that has been vaccuum packed, yet in reality it's beef that has been soaked in toxic chemical water and then vaccuum packed. These are two entirely different things and the fact that the public isn't being openly told about that is concerning.
Aside from Ray's website, I couldn't find anything on this subject on search engines! I wrote this article to ensure that this information is out there for anybody looking for it.
Thanks for reading guys. Would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.
This particular farm raises their cattle on 100% grass through intensive rotational grazing methods on pasture. As we know from Ray's work and researching nutrition in an evidence-based fashion, animal and animal food consumption is essential for human beings just as it has always been.
As I wrote about in a recent article, unless we switch to this kind of beef production, which builds topsoil, the UN estimates we've got less than 60 years left until extinction due to soil erosion from conventional agriculture. But those are just side notes.
The real matter I want to address in this thread is meat aging. (I know that from Ray's article below not aging animals at all is probably ideal, but if you're going to age an animal I think it's clear that dry aging for brief period is far better than the recently developed process of wet aging).
Conventionally raised livestock is 'wet aged', a process which wikipedia describes as:
Wet-aged beef is beef that has typically been aged in a vacuum-sealed bag to retain its moisture.
All that's said about this method is that it's vaccuum packed and allowed to age during transit - but if what Ray Peat has written about wet aging in Meat Physiology, Stress and degenerative physiology, then it appears the food industry/government are doing a very good job at keeping the public from knowing what is really being done to the meat that's available in stores.
Ray writes:
"At present, the US Department of Agriculture, through the mass media and funding the training of food technologists and "meat scientists," now takes the position that it is natural for meat to leak water after it is packaged, and says it is perfectly legal for meat producers to soak the meat in water with chemicals until it has increased its weight by 8%. The chemicals, such as trisodium phosphate (in a solution strength as high as 12%), are chosen because they powerfully stimulate swelling and water retention. Considerable amounts of some chemicals, such as sodium citrate, are allowed to add to the weight of the meat. The use of ozone and hydrogen peroxide to deodorize meat causes instantaneous oxidative changes, including lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyl formation, as well as increasing water retention."
Source: Meat physiology, stress, and degenerative physiology.
All the public is being told about wet aging is that it's meat that has been vaccuum packed, yet in reality it's beef that has been soaked in toxic chemical water and then vaccuum packed. These are two entirely different things and the fact that the public isn't being openly told about that is concerning.
Aside from Ray's website, I couldn't find anything on this subject on search engines! I wrote this article to ensure that this information is out there for anybody looking for it.
Thanks for reading guys. Would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.