"In order for the industry to turn a profit on the low prices
Americans have come to expect, most livestock are kept and slaughtered
on factory farms, where animals eat corn- and soybean-based feed — 10
to 30% of which is often radically different from what the animal
would consume naturally. For example, feathers, poultry manure and
bedding are all acceptable in cattle feed, according to the Food and
Drug Administration. Poultry may also be fed meat and bone meal ground
down to an inexpensive, protein-rich powder that encourages fast growth.

This practice can be dangerous to humans. According to Consumers
Union, between August 1997 and March 2004, 52 companies recalled
products for violating federal rules protecting feed from infectious
"prions," the proteins believed to cause mad-cow disease. Despite the
recalls, the FDA has failed to institute stricter rules."

personal infomration remove
Full Article below. From:
http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/i...y=november2005

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10 Things Your Butcher Won't Tell You
By Jane Black Published: October 11, 2005

1. "I've never touched a bandsaw or even handled a side of beef."
Being a butcher is a lot different than it was 25 years ago. Back then
skilled meat cutters used their muscle to break down whole carcasses
and their know-how to ensure no scrap was wasted. Today butchers are
more often found behind the meat department counter at one of the
large grocery chains, where their skill set — and salary — has been
reduced to accommodate the demands of big business. Their main job now
is to cut up smaller pieces, known as primals, into individual
portions, as well as to shape and tie roasts, and to grind meat for sale.

The upshot: Many butchers don't know a whole lot about the meat
they're hawking — where it comes from or basic information about
varying cuts, preparation or cooking time.

So where do you go if you want to know how to butterfly a leg of lamb?
Look for an old-fashioned, owner-operated butcher shop, or visit an
upscale market, such as Whole Foods. Theo Weening, the chain's
mid-Atlantic regional meat coordinator, encourages untrained staff to
enter a two-year apprenticeship program, and each year meat department
personnel are taken on educational outings to organic ranches.

2. "No special orders."
Many meat departments don't even have butchers anymore. Thanks to an
innovation known as "case-ready" meat, staff are often little more
than glorified stock handlers. Case-ready meat is prepackaged in
plants and delivered to vendors ready for sale. The industry contends
pre-preparation helps prevent contamination, enhance quality control
and lower prices. And while that may be true, it also means less
choice for consumers. Staff at chains that rely on case-ready product
are not trained to alter cuts. What you see is what you get — you
can't ask for a boneless rack of lamb, for example, or an extra-large
sirloin — and what's in stock is probably going to be cut and sized
based on what moves.

Among the monster chains, Wal-Mart has led the way — its supercenters
have carried only case-ready meat since 2001. Fortunately, not all
stores are on the case-ready bandwagon. High-end and specialty grocers
are the exception. At New York-based Dean & Deluca, for example,
breaking down a carcass is part of the job interview. "We have highly
skilled people because that's what our clients expect," says Bill
Lettier, vice president of retail operations. The bad news is, you can
expect to pay a premium for the privilege of choice.

3. "The real money's in prepared foods — marinades, kabobs... ka-ching."
"Don't take a butcher's advice on how to cook meat," Andy Rooney once
quipped. "If he knew, he'd be a chef." Perhaps. But more and more
butchers now spend as much time preparing meat as cutting it — often
at a premium. Wegmans, for example, offers marinated pork tenderloins
and chicken cutlets. On Aug. 28, the chain's Dulles, Va., store
offered straight pork tenderloin for $5.29 a pound, while a
honey-mustard-marinated version of the same went for $6.99 a pound.
That's too much even for people who hate to cook, like Bonnie Cohen,
an international business consultant in Washington, D.C. "Even I, who
am both lazy and nondiscriminating, find the prepared kabobs and other
meats are a waste of money," she says.

But markups aren't always so obvious. At Whole Foods, for example,
oven-ready chicken and beef kabobs in various marinades or a New York
strip steak in a smoked chipotle sauce cost the same as nonmarinated
cuts, but a preshaped, seasoned ground meat patty can run 20 to 75%
more than the regular stuff. Prices vary widely by region and
depending on the cost of beef, so compare carefully.

4. "You thought fat was bad; wait'll you get a load of the salt content."
Americans' obsession with leaner meats has had an unwelcome
consequence: Cut out the fat and you cut out the flavor. "Choice"
beef, the grade most commonly found in supermarkets, has less marbling
than it did 30 years ago — a result of breeding initiated in the 1970s
to respond to health concerns over fatty meats. To counteract the lack
of flavor, most processors get around the problem by injecting beef,
pork, chicken and turkey with saline, which often reaches 15% or more
of the purchasing weight.

Meat processors argue customers want preseasoned foods, which taste
better and save cooking time. (These additives also add shelf life.)
Critics counter that so-called enhanced meats and poultry are mushy
and salty. And most customers are outraged when they realize what
they're getting: "I paid for one-quarter of a pound of salt water when
I bought a 2-pound pack of chicken breasts," seethed New Yorker Amanda
Bernard. But for many people, money is the least of it: Enhanced meat
can be risky for those who need to watch their salt intake. The good
news is, it's relatively easy to spot enhanced products, which are
required to carry an ingredients-and-nutrition label.

5. "You are what the animal eats."
Americans are consuming more meat than ever. In 2004 we ate over 221
pounds of meat and poultry per person, up from 199 pounds in 1990. In
order for the industry to turn a profit on the low prices Americans
have come to expect, most livestock are kept and slaughtered on
factory farms, where animals eat corn- and soybean-based feed — 10 to
30% of which is often radically different from what the animal would
consume naturally. For example, feathers, poultry manure and bedding
are all acceptable in cattle feed, according to the Food and Drug
Administration. Poultry may also be fed meat and bone meal ground down
to an inexpensive, protein-rich powder that encourages fast growth.

This practice can be dangerous to humans. According to Consumers
Union, between August 1997 and March 2004, 52 companies recalled
products for violating federal rules protecting feed from infectious
"prions," the proteins believed to cause mad-cow disease. Despite the
recalls, the FDA has failed to institute stricter rules.

How can you avoid contaminated meat? For starters, buy organic, which
prohibits feed containing animal byproducts. And for information on
food safety, visit www.notinmyfood.org.

6. "This beef's 'all natural' — whatever that means."
Surely "all natural" meat is a good option? Nope. According to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, the terms "natural" and "all natural"
on a meat label in no way reflect how the animal was raised or what it
was fed; "natural" means only that producers have introduced no colors
or additives to the meat after processing.

Other labels are equally misleading. To qualify as "free range,"
according to the USDA, chickens must be given access to the outdoors
only in the most technical sense: The door to the pen must be open for
specified periods each day. Whether the birds actually go outside, and
for how long, is irrelevant. "If you want to pay twice as much for
essentially the same product, go right ahead," says Richard Lobb,
spokesperson for the National Chicken Council, which represents the
largest chicken producers and processors. "There really is no difference."

Contrary to popular belief, the only label with any real meaning is
"100% Organic," which requires that livestock eat 100% organic feed
containing no animal byproducts or growth hormones. These animals must
also be given actual, sustained access to the outdoors.

7. "It's not all that clean back here."
Is your meat department sanitary? Taking a look at store cleanliness
may be the only way to tell. Though inspection records are public
information, SmartMoney had to file a Freedom of Information request
to review state reports. And no wonder. According to the New York
Department of Agriculture, 25.5% of the state's supermarkets were
cited in 2004 for a critical deficiency involving insect, rodent, bird
or vermin activity that could have caused contamination, while 7.5%
were cited for unsanitary equipment services. Another 1% of stores
were slapped on the wrist for employees failing to wash their hands.

Your best option: Buy meat in stores where you believe sanitation is
taken seriously. Then develop a relationship with the butcher or meat
department personnel, and express any concerns.

8. "'Ground beef' is a euphemism."
John Montana, a Boston executive, is a gourmet cook, but sometimes he
just wants a burger on the grill. When the mood strikes, Montana
doesn't buy any old ground beef. Instead, he selects a raw cut and
asks the butcher to grind it on the spot. "That way, I know what I'm
getting," he says. Excellent idea. Ground beef, especially that found
in processed foods such as sausage and pizza toppings, is often
extracted by a process called "advanced meat recovery," where
carcasses are fed to a machine that strips soft tissue from bone.
Consumer advocates warn that AMR increases the risk that spinal tissue
— which can carry mad-cow disease — could be included among the
processed meat. The American Meat Institute counters that the spinal
cord is removed from all carcasses before being stripped. Meanwhile,
the first case of mad-cow disease in domestic-raised beef was
discovered in Texas this June.

But that's not the only worry with ground beef. It's also a bacteria
magnet. During the grinding process and packaging, it's exposed to air
that is rife with harmful bugs including listeria, staphylococcus and
salmonella. It's so difficult to prevent infection that the USDA okays
ground beef with 7.5% incidence of salmonella bacteria, versus just 1%
for raw cuts. Most experts agree that's a reasonable level as long as
meat is cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, the
temperature at which most pathogens are destroyed. The problem is,
that's well beyond the popular medium rare.

Our best advice: Find a butcher with a dedicated grinder for beef —
you don't want any pork or chicken mixed in — and have your beef
ground at the store. Then cook your burgers thoroughly.

9. "These pork chops could come from anywhere."
After Canada confirmed cases of mad cow in 2003, consumers suddenly
became interested in the origin of their meat. But it's not often easy
to tell. Meat from Argentina, Australia and Canada, among other
places, is available in supermarkets, bearing a USDA stamp.

It's not only Canada that's of concern: In 2003 consumer-watchdog
group Public Citizen warned that many overseas inspection systems
certified by the USDA do not meet core requirements of U.S. law.
Brazil and Mexico, for example, violated U.S. rules that meat be
inspected by independent government officials, yet these countries
have retained their eligibility to export. The USDA's zero-tolerance
policy for contaminants including feces and urine was also repeatedly
violated by Australia, Canada and Mexico. USDA spokesperson Steven
Cohen asserts the system has been modified to spotlight higher-risk
products. "We have a very rigorous system of importation and
certification," he says. "We continually do audits to ensure that
overseas food-safety systems remain vigorous."

For now, the industry has defeated country-of-origin labeling. Your
best bet: Look for domestic meat, locally raised if possible.

10. "Tainted meat slips through the cracks all the time."
In 2001 Barbara Kowalcyk's young son, Kevin, died after eating a
burger she prepared from meat infected with Escherichia coli. The
strain that killed Kevin was identical to the E. coli found in meat
recalled that summer by meat processor American Food Group. But
Kowalcyk can't be sure that's where it came from since recalls are
voluntary.

How do you know if the meat you're buying is okay? Code numbers on
every package of beef sold can be cross-referenced online with those
of contaminated meat, posted at fsis.usda.gov. But few consumers are
going to hit the Internet every time they throw a steak on the grill.
The reality is that the system is imperfect, and tainted meat does
slip through the cracks. So far this year, there have been 24 recalls
of meat due to dangerous levels of pathogens, including listeria, E.
coli and spinal-column remains of a cow over 30 months old.

Your best bet is prevention. Freeze or refrigerate meat as soon as
possible after buying it, and thaw in the refrigerator, not on the
counter. Cook meat thoroughly; juices should be brown, not pink or
red. Place cooked meat on clean plates, and never reuse dishes that
have been in contact with raw meat. Finally, serve immediately, or
keep meat hot.
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