Hattix

Colloquially it’s a saying about sausages and law: Those who like it shouldn’t know how it’s made. It applies to a lot more foods too. This post is going to talk about mechanically recovered meat and meat reforming.

Nutritionally it’s near identical to any standard cut of meat, so there’s no health issue to worry about over what would be normal. What’s more fun is how it’s made and what it is.

We all have exposure to MRM and reformed meat, it’s what makes up those pre-sliced ham packets you can get anywhere. Mechanical recovery and reformation are two different processes and need not occur together (but MRM is almost always reformed, while reformed meat is not always MRM).

The particular example I’m using is a pack of ham slices I have here - “Thinly Sliced Ham”:
Pork (78%), Water, Salt, Dextrose, Stabilisers (E451, E450), Antioxidant (E301), Preservatives (E252, E250).

To the untrained eye, it looked as though it was just a slice through a block of ham. It’s not. It’s never been. After butchering and carving, a carcass typically has quite a bit of red meat (by ‘meat’ I’m refering to muscle, not offal or other forms of meat, but actual red meat which would otherwise be called ‘pork’) left on it. Some clings to the bones, other chunks are unattractive due to size or position. This is removed by forcing the bones through a mesh of fine metal wires. The result is cartilage, some meat and a few chips of bone. That’s mechanical recovery.

These slivers of meat are partly digested by the addition of enzymes to make them sticky, then forced into a block, which is reforming. The origin is usually quite a few animals from multiple sources. The block is forced together in a compression chamber where square blocks of sticky meat come out one side and a vaguely pink/white slurry sloshes in the other side. Tasty.

They then cure it and steam it before slicing and packaging.

78% pork, though? Most of the other 22% is water. A very light brine is added for three reasons. Firstly because reformed meat is very dry and would stick together in the pack and secondly because people consider meat that’s cold and wet to be fresher than meat that’s cold and dry. Finally and greatest of all is that it bulks out the meat. Sold by weight and 22% of the weight is water.

The salt added is part of the water and usually quite light as far as brine goes. The salt is added for very simple reasons: The reforming process removes salt from the pork which is naturally quite salty and salt is a preservative.

Dextrose is very simply, sugar. Or, rather, glucose, the most basic sugar. “Glucose” itself refers to D-glucose, it is a chiral compound with four chiral centers (centers with reflective symmetry but no superimposition symmetry or rotational symmetry - they make differently structured molecules) in the molecule, giving 16 enantiomers. Eight of them are biologically inactive in that they don’t taste sweet, they provide no energy to the body but are otherwise chemically identical, these are L-glucose and very hard to come by since no biological processes make them. Dextrose always refers to D-glucose. It’s added for taste.

E451 is sodium tripolyphosphate and potassium tripolyphosphate (Na₅P₃O₁₀ and K₅P₃O₁₀) which are used as emulsifiers, preservatives, acidity regulators but overwhelmingly (and especially here) as hydrolysers or emulsifiers - They make food retain water. It adds a rather soapy taste so is used sparingly. Used here it is an emulsifier, but it’s also used in detergents (it softens hard water), toothpaste and industry. While not toxic or harmful in any testing, most juristictions limit how much tripolyphosphate can be added because of its bulking properties, it makes protein-based food (meat, seafood, etc.) take on water so make them heavier. When buying by weight, this adds to the sale price but not to the production cost. In our 22% water ham, it’s there to keep the water in the ham.

E450 is similar to E451, but is E450(i) Disodium diphosphate, E450 (ii) Trisodium diphosphate, E450 (iii) Tetrasodium pyrophosphate, E450 (v) Tetrapotassium pyrophosphate, E450 (vi) Calcium dihydrogen diphosphate. These are a group of diphosphates. For some of them the older “pyrophosphate” name is more common, but they are all actually diphosphate. Diphosphate is extremely important in biology as it is part of the respiration process whereby sugars and fats are metabolised to energy. As a pure chemical, it is slightly toxic and mildly irritant and can cause an allergic reaction to sensitive people when used in food. In food it is used as a buffering agent (resists changes in acidity), an emulsifier as E451 is and as a thickening agent. Here it is an emulsifier…why two? E451 can be quite unpleasantly tasting but E450 is tasteless. It’s added in much larger quantities to soy-based meat ‘alternatives’ which aren’t terribly healthy to begin with.

E301 is the sodium salt of ascorbic acid, vitamin C. It’s used here as an antioxidant, specifically to prevent the formation of nitrosamines from nitrites via contact with oxygen.

E252 is potassium nitrate or saltpetre/saltpeter. It is used as an explosive, a fertiliser and a food additive and has been used for curing meat for hundreds of years. Traditional foods have used potassium nitrate to preserve meat long before the chemical was even known about, usually as ashes from burnt wood.

E250 is why E301 is present, sodium or potassium nitrite. They are antibacterial and antifungal compounds used largely to prevent the occurence of clostridium botulinum (botulism). Nitrites oxidise to nitrosamines which are listed as being potentially carcinogenic, but unproven. Nitrosamines are formed from nitrites and some amino acids (e.g. vitamins, proteins) under high temperatures (frying), acidic environments (e.g. your stomach) and in the presence of oxygen (e.g. in air). Since we can’t get amino acids, the “building blocks” of life, any way other than by eating them then nitrosamines are produced by the body during digestion, mostly from meat. Some studies have linked them to cancers of the gastric tract and oesophagus but at a very low risk. The conversion rate from nitrites isn’t great in the stomach (not hot enough) so risk is very low if anything.

Faith schools. A homogenous environment within which outsiders (the rest of us) are unknown and feared. We naturally fear what we don’t know and a child in a faith school fears those of other faiths or of no faith. They are schools in which science which contradicts whatever ancient book or soggy text has scribbled on it can simply be ignored. They are schools where reality is suspended and pupils are taught a religious fantasy. Your child who worked his balls off to learn real science and real mathematics can lose out on a college or university place to some kid who wrote “my god did it”.

Our Government PAYS FOR this horrendous breach of British and human values.

This must end. Of course these schools will only employ teachers of the “correct faith”. It’s racial segregation applied to the most vulnerable among us, our children. I’ve already covered in this very blog how our government doesn’t give a damned shit about REALLY protecting our children.

No state funding is acceptable for any school with ANY form of discrimination based on whichever ghost in the sky (presumably dodging planes) is biggest. Religious schools are an evil establishment aiming to indoctrinate the most vulnerable. It cannot be allowed to continue in this day and age.

“The prime minister says the economic situation isn’t as bad people think and that Britain is well placed to weather the economic storm, but the Chancellor says we are at a 60-year low.” - George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor.

That’s all you should need to hear about the Conservative Party’s sleight of hand. So the Chancellor says we’re at a 60 year low (in some unstated economic measure - may well be the sales of playing cards for all we know). Does this mean that the economic situation is worse than people think? Does it mean we’re not well placed to weather it? No, it doesn’t.

When the Tories are this openly desperate to try to deflect scrutiny away from themselves, you have to wonder why. It was Descartes who said that a compelling pars destruens must be followed by an equally compelling pars construens, that is a argument against must be followed by an argument for something better. The Tories are full of the destruens but have precious little construens. They have lots of attack against the Government, but nothing of substance to add themselves. Are they willingly trying to make themselves unelectable?

What kind of an idiot votes for someone who so openly engages in deception and trickery? They clearly have no idea about the economic problems the world is undergoing so they try to distract us from the problem. Solutions, Tories. We want solutions, not whining.

The military doctrine during the Cold War and continuing today is MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction. It states that were one side to attack the other, overwhelming and immediate retaliation would result. It was MAD which kept an uneasy peace in the post-WWII years and continues to keep Russia and the US from blowing each other up to this day.

However, the US are tired of keeping the peace and want to achieve something which destroys the concept of MAD: A first strike capability. First strike capacity means that one side is able to launch a strike on the other without fear of crippling retaliation. It makes war all the more likely. The side lacking first strike would feel extremely threatened and the side with first strike would feel they could attack with impunity. The end result is a massive breakdown in stability.

It’s exactly this that the US is seeking to achieve. Under the pretense of defending against missiles from Iran (what missiles?), the US are building missile interception installations in Czech Republic and Poland. Which, I may remind the reader, are nowhere near Iran (nor on a ballistic flightpath from Iran to the US, should Iran ever have that capability) but very much near Russia.

For their part, the Russians are very annoyed and correctly state that the goal is to undermine the global balance of power and global stability. Of course, claims like this need some justification, so let’s give it.

The US counts among its enemies Iran, North Korea and a few others. Iran have missiles with a rough 1,000km range, not enough to even threaten Turkey, let alone Poland. North Korea’s missiles have a greater range but still only regional. They could threaten South Korea and Japan, but that’s about it. North Korea are also entirely in the wrong hemisphere. Iran’s threat is very real, Israel and the US have been trash talking them for the last five years. However, Iran lacks ballistic missiles and the expertise to produce them. The only power in the vicinity with the expertise, the resources and the hardware to warrant anti-missile defences is Russia.

I’m no fan of Moscow, but I find it very hard to disagree with the Russian president when he says “The deployment of new anti-missile forces in Europe has the Russian federation as its aim”

Following the tragic deaths of Catherine and Ben Mullany on the island of Antigua, Antigua has had itself in quite a hard place. The island is reliant on tourism for it’s entire economy and it has to protect its reputation.

Instead, the idiots want to destroy it. While Antigua already has capital punishment for murder, new legislation is to permit it for any crime involving a weapon which lead to death or serious injury.

Great work, geniuses! Are you not aware that most of your trade comes from Europe which has very negative views on capital punishment, indeed outlawing it in the European Union? The very first time a European is burgled there and defends himself using whatever he can find, perhaps killing the burglar, the media will be all over it like a dog on a steak. “Burgled Briton in Antigua faces possible death sentence” - Is that the kind of headline that’ll help your tourism industry?

All they’ve done is confirm that they’re a backwards hell hole that isn’t safe.

I wonder if “Well there’s really nothing we can do, it’s already illegal” is even within a politician’s vocabulary?

The tension between Russia and Georgia has finally spilled out into open warfare. Ossetia has its roots as one of the many provinces which united into nations as the Renaissance swept Europe and the near-East. Ossetia, both North and South, were part of the USSR before its dissolution and North Ossetia is now part of Russia, however South Ossetia took a different view. When Georgia exercised its right to self-rule, South Ossetia wanted to do the same. However, South Ossetia was not recognised as a nation within the USSR so had no constitutional right of secession. Georgia rightfully claimed South Ossetia remained Georgian.

South Ossetia was governed largely as an autonomous entity within the Georgian federal state (much like how US states can make their own laws and largely self-govern), but it itself considers itself to be a republic (it is not recognised by any international body) and is friendly toward Moscow. Russia sent over peacekeepers to mediate between South Ossetia and Georgia but in actuality sponsored and supported their resistance to the Georgian government.

To make matters worse, the US Army has been supplying and training Georgian forces (under the cover of Georgian involvment in Iraq) and Georgia has had ambitions of joining NATO, an organisation the Russians aren’t too keen on.

Russia for its part has been supplying citizens of South Ossetia with Russian passports and granting them citizenship, in a pretty flagrant violation of Georgian sovereignty. Russia is now using “protecting our citizens” as an excuse to invade the region and attakc Georgia.

All the requirements for a proxy war are there.

At the moment, the West has remained quite sedate. Britain has urged for a ceasefire, France has stated that Russia’s relations with the EU will suffer and the US has condemned the invasion as unacceptable.

The international community is generally united against Russia in condemning Russia’s hostilities:

China called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
United Kingdom urged “an immediate ceasefire and resumption of direct dialogue”.
United States believe the Russians should “show greater restraint” and must “respect Goergia’s territorial integrity”.
A joint statement by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (all nearby to the conflict) “strongly condemns” the “unilateral military actions” of Russia.
In general, the international community stops short of condemning Russia directly but is far from condoning their actions.

In my opinion, Russia couldn’t care less about some nobodies in some tiny little state. It cares more about showing the West that it will not be intimidated and it still has a lot of bite with its bark. Russia has long been distrustful of the West and especially NATO; It isn’t likely to give a damn what we say.

However, Russia ought to be very careful about who it chooses to tangle with. The European Union is an extremely powerful military force and is increasingly well-coordinated and united. The EU has quite some interest in Turkey, which borders Georgia.

Out in front, leading the whole of Europe, is Britain! That’s right, in economic stagnation, we are first! The Eurozone (countries who adopted the single currency) is sitting pretty laughing at us Johnny Foreigners who’re busy coping with poor growth and growing unemployment.

So I’d like to congratulate the Conservative Party and all its followers on their successful promotion of high unemployment and low economic prosperity. Little Britain can stand on its own against the global market! Or, well, it can’t. We’re being fucking steamrolled into dirt because we don’t have the stability in size that the Eurozone has. When you lose your job or your mortgage rates rise again…you know who to blame.

For the nth time, the IMF has downgraded UK economic growth. We are now growing BELOW the level of inflation and have been for some time. Yet the Eurozone continues to enjoy economic prosperity and be our last line of defence against the US collapse. Did I say “our last line”? I meant to say “their last line”. We’re screwed, they’re not.

I was wondering two things at half past two (about twenty minutes ago as I write this, about one hour and ten minutes ago as I post it) this morning. What to eat and what to post. So I decided to combine the two.

My victim was a packet of Batchelors Beef flavour Savoury Rice. As I was making it, I was wondering about all the so-called “food scares” we have every so often when the media gets bored. My idea was to list out every ingredient listed on the packet and see what, exactly, they are.

As printed:
Rice, Dried Peas (4%), Flavourings (contain Celery, Milk, Soya), Dried Carrot (2.5%), Dried Onion, Salt, Sugar, Dried Red Pepper (1%), Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Flavour Enhancers (E621, E635, E627), Onion Powder, Colour (Ammonia Caramel (contains Wheat)), Garlic Powder, Black Pepper Extract and Herb Extract.

Rice, dried peas, celery and milk are obvious. The first one worth mentioning is soya. This is a derivative of soy which is a veritable cocktail of poison! Our Western obsession with soy is obvious: It’s cheap, available in huge quantities and very easy to produce. Soy and its products contain enzyme inhibitors which block protein digestion by blocking the enzymes responsible for breaking down proteins into amino acids (the ‘building material’ of most body tissue). We have haemagluttin which causes blood clots, hinders oxygen transport in the blood and stunts growth. Soy contains numerous phytates which make minerals unavailable to the body during digestion, remarkably insidious since the best way to avoid severe mineral deficiency with phytates and phytic acid around is to eat lots of meat. Last, but by far not least, phytoestrogens, chemicals which mimic the female sex hormone. Soy, in any of its forms, is bad news. It has been linked to Asians (especially Chinese) having far higher rates of cancer along the digestive tract than anyone else in the world and with the relatively recent rise in the same cancers among Westerners. Soy-based infant formula is banned in many countries and linked to numerous growth defects, especially in girls (probably due to the phytoestrogens). Dr. Fitzpatrick’s ‘Truth About Soy’ website has more information.

Next up we have dried carrot and dried onion. Carrot, when dried, is virtually tasteless and is used for colour and texture. Onion when dried becomes quite a potent spice, so is used for flavouring.

Salt needs no introduction, it’s an essential mineral with a distinctive taste. It also helps food cook better. Sugar is just for taste and is a dimer of fructose and glucose in its most common form, sucrose. Note that “salts” in a chemical context is not what we usually think of as salt. A salt is the product made when an acid is neutralised. Sodium salts are common in food because sodium is only harmful in huge excess (and is actually necessary for life) and the alternative is using the acid directly (e.g. monosodium glutamate instead of glutamic acid) which is typically not possible since the acid would be in liquid form, the salt in solid.

Dried red peppers are common in this sort of thing, being largely for colour, but also quite a potent spice in their own right.

Hydrogenated vegetable oil is the next big one. Oils are long chain carbon molecules (long chain organics) with various chemical groups. The ones we’re interested in are double bonds (the alkene group) between two carbon atoms. As the molecule cannot rotate around that bond, it’s fixed into shape. This prevents it from getting up close with other molecules, so lowers the melting point. What we do is then react them in a huge reaction vessel with hydrogen and a catalyst, typically nickel, to crack open the double bond into a single bond by adding hydrogen across it. This means the molecule is more free to rotate and can stack well with its fellow molecules, if it can get closer to another molecule, it can solidify more easily (London dispersion forces are stronger) and so the melting point rises: Perfect when you want something closer to the consistency of butter and less like, well, vegetable oil. Now, the big problem there is that we get an amount of some quite nasty stuff in there: Trans-fats. Trans-fats aren’t found in nature and the body’s digestive system doesn’t recognise them as something it can use to make your belly bigger. They’re being more and more linked to all kinds of chronic illnesses and some places have already banned their use while others are considering it.

The flavourings are next, E621, E635 and E627. If anything, european standards mean that manufacturers have to be consistent in their labelling. Starting with E621, we have monosodium glutamate, the sodium salt of glutamic acid, a natural amino acid. The sodium is, of course, removed and the amino acid restored. It has a distinctive taste but was with a health scare some years ago. Even now, some manufacturers advertise “MSG-Free!” as though it were a good thing. MSG is found in nature and quite plentiful (especially in Asian foodstuffs), it is present in high quantities in yeast, soy and many spices. The health scare? Investigation after investigation found utterly no evidence to support any harmful activity by glutamate or glutamic acid, noted its high natural presence and that the human body produces it itself and that amounts which could cause harm in laboratory tests (on rats) were massively high doses involving chemically pure MSG. The verdict? Enjoy the stuff, it tastes nice and indeed the taste itself, umami, is very difficult to obtain any other way because our tongues contain specific receptors for glutamate - It’s something that we’ve evolved to be able to detect and almost everyone finds the taste to be pleasant. Nature wants us to eat this stuff.

E635 refer to guanylic and inosinic acid or their sodium salts in mixed proportions. They’re used as flavour enhancers. They don’t have a flavour themselves but enhance many others, meaning less salt (salt being common salt, sodium chloride) and flavourings are needed. Finally, E627 is guanylic acid alone and used exactly as E635 is (it’s partly the same chemical!) as a flavour enhancer.

That brings us to onion powder, made by pulverising dried onions. It is a very potent flavour but otherwise unremarkable.

Under that is our colour, ammonia caramel, also known as E150c, baker’s caramel or beer caramel. Caramel has no known toxicity and, as an extensively used ingredient, has undergone exhaustive trials and study. It is used as a colour in this case, to stain the rice slightly brown (this is a “beef-flavour” after all).

Finally, we have garlic powder (another very powerful flavouring), black pepper extract (usually simply crushed in water, the dissolvable stuff dissolved, then dried out of the water and added to the food) and herb extract which isn’t specified; This means it legally doesn’t have to be so no known studies have found any cause for concern.

And there we have it. The extensive list of ingredients which make a common modern convenience food everything it is. Flavourings to emulate beef (which typically fail), flavour enhancers to make the taste stronger, vegetables and spices to add texture and colour, a colouring, a bunch of cheap soy and the ever-present hydrogenated vegetable oil, possibly to prevent the rice from clumping.

Note to self: Next time, check the live satellite images for errant thunderstorms before going for a walk in the 2am clear night air.