On 10/7/2012 12:23 PM, George wrote:
> On 10/7/2012 12:48 PM, Janet Bostwick wrote:

>> Injected meat is a whole different thing than brining. With
>> injection, you are actually adding liquid to the meat. With brining,
>> there is an exchange. IMO
>> Janet US
>>
> Exactly, the process walmart (and others who have followed) requires
> for their "fresh" meat is that it be injected to add additional
> liquid. That way they can make more money on by by selling water, and
> keep the "fresh" meat shelf stable for a month.

Bingo. I was part of a product evaluation group for Hormel injected
pork products way back in their development phase. I had a long
conversation with the guy leading the group about what the company's
goal was. He said they wanted to boost pork sales, but consumer
surveys showed that a lot of people reported pork was more challenging
than other meats to cook properly because it was so prone to drying
out and getting tough. Hormel was thus looking at ways to produce pork
that would be consistently tender even if it was overcooked or cooked
incorrectly. The fact that injecting the solution increased the meat
weight was a little bonus, but they mainly wanted to boost the
consumption of pork.

There's a fact sheet that explains what those ingredients do to the
pork they're injected into:

Functionality Of Non-Meat Ingredients Used In Enhanced Pork

http://www.extension.org/pages/27340...-enhanced-pork

Some excerpts:

....it is the ability of salt to increase waterholding capacity that
drives its use in enhanced pork products.
The addition of sodium lactate has been shown to improve overall
color, help to stabilize color during storage and to increase the
length of time that color is maintained during storage. The addition
of sodium lactate has been shown to increase meat juiciness...sodium
lactate addition has been shown to improve the pork flavor in these
meats and to reduce the development of off-flavors associated with
lipid oxidation. However, sodium lactate addition also has been
associated with higher salt tastes, increased throat-burning
mouth-feel, and higher levels of chemical aromatic flavor.
Potassium lactate has been shown to increase meat color, improve
juiciness and tenderness, enhance positive flavor attributes and
decrease negative flavor attributes during storage, decrease microbial
growth, and limit the growth of some major meat pathogens as
previously discussed with sodium lactate.
Sodium diacetate recently has been approved for use in meat products
as an antimicrobial agent.
The use of food grade organic acids, such as citric, malic, acetic,
lactic, benzoic, sorbic and propionic acids, have been used to limit
microbiological growth in food products.