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  1. #1
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    Borey the Bald's Avatar
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    Antiseptic Meat and Fish

    While watching a rerun of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" TV show last week, he made what I thought was a very strange statement. He said, without making any explanation, that he does not recommend buying fresh on ice fish from any supermarket meat counter. If farm raised (which much of it is), he recommended buying only quick frozen fish raised in the US. Since his show is as much about the "why" of cooking as it is the "how", I wondered what his reason for being that picky might be. So, on my next trip to the supermarket, I talked to a manager there to get his ideas.


    What I had previously noticed, is that in areas stocking fresh fish and meats, there is a lack of any odors. And in taking fresh fish, meats or poultry home, opening the package, there is no smell to any of these foods. The manager indicated that the lack of odor and the longer shelf life for fresh meats and fish was, in his opinion, all connected. These foods all arrive at the supermarket pre-treated with chemicals so that they will last longer in the display case and not start to stink, even if on the verge of rotting.


    This pre-treatment for "fresh" meats and fish appears to be widespread in the US. (A few days ago I noticed a "fresh" deli tuna salad sandwich in a 7-11 type store with a sell-by date 3 weeks out.) Anyone walking through a meat or fish market in Thailand knows, by the stench, that they are not using such chemicals there. My question for you all is, does the use of pre-treated meats and fish happen elsewhere in the world, or is it just one of the benefits of living in the US?

  2. #2
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    Troy's Avatar
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    Quick frozen reduces the amount of processing required... and processing can never add to quality, only reduce it. So the comment Alton Brown made seems reasonable to me.

    There has been a bit of a rumpus over food adulteration in the UK recently , but this is more to do with wholesale trade to Restaurants etc. rather than supermarket trade for direct consumer use. I found this report from the Mail about Chickens as an example...
    The 'plastic chicken' that's only 51% meat | Mail Online

    I remember my Mum used to go berserk over too much water in the bacon when cooking breakfast...Supermarket branded, cheap crap that forms a white gunge in the pan when you cook the bacon. Added water and salt was always a thing in the uK but not much else....

    I found this EU doc when I did a quick search...might be of interest with the quick freeze vs chilled question....

    seafood.ucdavis.edu/pubs/coldchain.doc

  3. #3
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    sunsetter's Avatar
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    load of rubbish, never been sick from eating fish off of ice, in the uk or south east asia, nonsense, you youngsters think too mutt.

  4. #4
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    He's totally right.... I wouldn't buy fish on ice off a supermarket meat counter either.

    I'd go to the supermarket fish counter!

  5. #5
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    I get mine straight off the boat. The only thing it has on it is seawater
    The beauty of living on an island or next to the sea.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by sunsetter View Post
    load of rubbish, never been sick from eating fish off of ice, in the uk or south east asia, nonsense, you youngsters think too mutt.
    If you eat food contaminated with preservatives for long enough, the cumulative effect on your body will undoubtedly make you sick, but it wont be a twenty four hour bout of food poisoning, it will be an incurable malignancy that has been quietly developing inside your organs.

    I believe the food industry is slowly killing us and in twenty or so years down the line, when the adverse effects of all the chemicals used in the food industry can be statistically proven , we will look back and wonder how we could have been so stupid.

    It is the youngsters who really do need to worry, as they will have a lifetimes exposure to it all to look forward to.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by sunsetter View Post
    load of rubbish, never been sick from eating fish off of ice, in the uk or south east asia, nonsense, you youngsters think too mutt.

    Ay.These were the Days!

    WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER

    CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's and 60's
    .
    First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank Sherry while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos...
    They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer. Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
    We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
    We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Nandos. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on a Sunday, somehow we didn't starve to death!
    We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers and Bubble Gum.
    We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter, milk from the cow and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
    No one was able to reach us all day. And we were okay.
    We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY, no video/DVD's or colour TV no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet Facebook... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them.
    We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
    Only girls had pierced ears!
    We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time...
    We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays, we rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them. Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet because we didn't need to keep up with the Jones's!
    Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket/netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that! Getting into the team was based on MERIT.
    Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren't paying attention. We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R's education.
    Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
    Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'.
    We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
    You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good

  8. #8
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    BillyBobThai's Avatar
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    I was born in 1951, and that sounded like my typical day in the summer when school was out. My step son is 11 and almost afraid to go outside at night.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by richie22 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by sunsetter View Post
    load of rubbish, never been sick from eating fish off of ice, in the uk or south east asia, nonsense, you youngsters think too mutt.

    Ay.These were the Days!

    WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER

    CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's and 60's
    .
    First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank Sherry while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos...
    They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer. Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
    We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
    We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Nandos. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on a Sunday, somehow we didn't starve to death!
    We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers and Bubble Gum.
    We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter, milk from the cow and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
    No one was able to reach us all day. And we were okay.
    We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY, no video/DVD's or colour TV no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet Facebook... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them.
    We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
    Only girls had pierced ears!
    We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time...
    We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays, we rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them. Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet because we didn't need to keep up with the Jones's!
    Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket/netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that! Getting into the team was based on MERIT.
    Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren't paying attention. We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R's education.
    Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
    Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'.
    We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
    You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good

    Them were the days, love it, love your avatar ,,, cant take me eyes off it !

  10. #10
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    BugginOut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by richie22
    WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's and 60's
    It's wonderful you were brought up in the good ol' days when everything was great, but this is now your generation's legacy. Every aspect of society that you consider to be failing is the responsibility of your generation right down to the poor education and ill manners of the younger generations. If it was all so perfect before, why couldn't you and your generation preserve it? Congratulations indeed.
    Eat more Cheezy Poofs!

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by BugginOut View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by richie22
    WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's and 60's
    It's wonderful you were brought up in the good ol' days when everything was great, but this is now your generation's legacy. Every aspect of society that you consider to be failing is the responsibility of your generation right down to the poor education and ill manners of the younger generations. If it was all so perfect before, why couldn't you and your generation preserve it? Congratulations indeed.

    It is meant as a joke.
    What are you? One of the freeloader, gap year, mommy and daddy have given me a credit card to travel generation.
    We worked hard for what we have not handed to us on a plate like the pussy generation that is growing up today.

    So thanks for the congratulations we deserve it.

  12. #12
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    No one has yet to really address the question posed in the OP: "My question for you all is, does the use of pre-treated meats and fish happen elsewhere in the world, or is it just one of the benefits of living in the US?" The most likely way of knowing would probably be the absence of any odor coming off those foods. Simple cleanliness would not eliminate odors.

    Published articles, such as the one Troy provides a link to above, don't talk about the question of chemical preservative and additives. Wikipedia mentions that the US FDA has approved 80 of these additives, but I could find no detailed information about them.

    Taxexile's post about the cumulative effects of these chemicals is, for me, the most important concern. It is certainly not so much a concern about us. I would think that even the most callous FDA bureaucrat would make sure these chemicals would not cause immediate harm to the public. But what will be the long term impact. Will our grandchildren suffer because of this?

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by BugginOut View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by richie22
    WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's and 60's
    It's wonderful you were brought up in the good ol' days when everything was great, but this is now your generation's legacy. Every aspect of society that you consider to be failing is the responsibility of your generation right down to the poor education and ill manners of the younger generations. If it was all so perfect before, why couldn't you and your generation preserve it? Congratulations indeed.
    The fukkin 'always blame someone else' spineless generation. Pity their kids.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by BugginOut View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by richie22
    WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's and 60's
    It's wonderful you were brought up in the good ol' days when everything was great, but this is now your generation's legacy. Every aspect of society that you consider to be failing is the responsibility of your generation right down to the poor education and ill manners of the younger generations. If it was all so perfect before, why couldn't you and your generation preserve it? Congratulations indeed.
    speaking as a north american, canadian actually.
    every generation since independence day, or confederation, has had it easier and easier...the dirty 30's being the only stall in the process. (aw shit...never mind all that, it's been happening since the caveman times.)
    it was inevitable that eventually society's youth of today would suffer from this.
    parents naturally want their kids to have it easier than they did.
    funny thing is, the latest generation still think they have it rough. (maybe they do, actually. the world was so much simpler when i was a kid)
    i don't think you can blame this fully on the previous generation....this was just a natural progression, unfortunately.

    the whole planet's going down the shitter.....



    my apologies for helping drag this thread off topic.
    Last edited by galaxytrash; 20-11-2012 at 09:32 PM.

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Borey the Bald
    My question for you all is, does the use of pre-treated meats and fish happen elsewhere in the world, or is it just one of the benefits of living in the US
    You can buy crap food in every country in the world. As for being able to buy crap food in the US, is that a benefit?

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