Mechanically separated meat

[gfish]

So, there is a picture floating around of a big pile of mechanically separated meat. And, yeah, it's kind of gross looking. But the fuss being raised around this image really kind of annoys me. First of all, aren't we a bit beyond equating visually unpleasant with morally questionable? It's the same tactic those hideous abortion protesters use with their giant posters. I suspect an appendectomy isn't very pretty either, but that doesn't make it a bad thing.

But also... am I the only person who already knew what mechanically separated meat was? It's not exactly a new invention. Everyone knows that chickens don't actually have nuggets, right?

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

What I find unpalatable is meat where you can see--or worse yet, feel--the anatomy of the dead thing you are eating. I pretty much gag on meat that's not processed beyond recognition. But that's just me being a total freak.

[solarbird]

I thought it looked like silly putty.

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

I call shenanigans, as I said when someone posted the same image on FB: Actually, that's more likely to be a mislabelled shot of an icecream extruder - because it looks an awful lot like the ones I've seen in the food chemistry field trips I did back in the nineties, and I've been heavily personally involved in cutting/slicing/dicing/mincing and grinding animal carcases on and off for twenty years, both as a hobby and in various interactions with freezing works via the farm, and that does not look like any processed meat colour and texture I've been involved in. Plus, my chemistry sense is tingling and that colour and texture being extruded screams hot icecream with a colour 110 or similar, just pre-freezing, not pulverised meat product (Icecream goes into cardboard for freezing, too; meat doesn't, or at least, not in the places where the workers bother to wear gloves...). The mechanically recovered meat industry is remarkably scary, but it doesn't look like that.

[gement.livejournal.com]

I was curious about those points, but didn't have enough background to speak up.

Mind you, if it did look like that, my only response is "Neat!" I like the commenter who pointed out how expensive eating the wacky parts of animals is at a sushi restaurant. (I do not appreciate sushi personally, but appreciate the stand against hypocrisy.)

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

Snopes already has a partial disclaimer up, but it doesn't address the image; However, having spent more time than the average lurker inside both icecream factories and abbatoirs/meatworks, I'm fairly certain the image is from the former, not the latter.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

First of all, aren't we a bit beyond equating visually unpleasant with morally questionable?

I'd love to believe that, but there's plenty of evidence to the contrary. Exhibit A is transphobia.

ETA: It didn't gross me out. It reminded me of insulation foam.

[loree.livejournal.com]

The outrage has the stench of privilege all over it. No, it's not the best nutritional content, but it's an efficient use of resources and a relatively inexpensive source of complete proteins. Not everybody can afford free-range organic air-cooled boneless skinless chicken breasts for $9 a pound. High-quality nutritive food is a luxury.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

There's a whole branch of experimental psychology dealing with how people vary their perception of an object's worth by how it is presented, and there's ample evidence that people actually do enjoy and receive more pleasure from consuming lousy wine they think is fine wine, than fine wine they think is lousy wine. I suppose that's irrational, but if it's how we're wired, is rationality relevant?

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

We used to call 'em "Gerbil McNuggets" back in elementary school. :)

[beaq.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure $9/lb chicken isn't the only alternative.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

It's not just you. I remember Biology lessons too well to be comfortable going 'oh, that's a vein...' during dinner.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

This. I worked at Mattessons (http://www.mattessons.co.uk/) during my college holidays, and did a stint on a chicken processing plant as well. Never saw anything that looked like that. MRM came out of a drum looking more like sawdust (this was 1990-ish, so I accept that practices have changed!), and it was never that colour.

[pielology.livejournal.com]

No one would be worried about the nutritional content if it the same meat were left on the bones and the bones were used to make soup.

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is why it's bad to feed more people with fewer (or the same number of) chickens. People who think the industrial food system is gross (and it is in many ways) need to look at the whole industrial food system, not just the bits that immediately appeal to the senses and sensibilities as icky. It's the facts about our food system that are hard to condense down to an impactful image that are ultimately the most troubling, anyway.

[loree.livejournal.com]

And I didn't say it was, but the article's tone of "buy real cuts of meat from a butcher" ignores a lot of day-to-day realities.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly. So they're suggesting we should throw more meat away?

[empty-fork.livejournal.com]

Transphobia? Hey! Who you calling visually unpleasant?

Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. I suppose there's an uncomfortably high correlation between approving of transgendered self-presentation and thinking it's cute. I suppose that's exactly what you just said.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! I didn't even *read* the article, I'd seen the photo so many times. Oops.

[tithonium.livejournal.com]

The thing that bugged me is... this is the same picture that was making the rounds two or three /years/ ago, isn't it?

But, yeah, ew ew food is so gross, stop eating industrial food! Urban dwelling and job specialization is so horrible and modern!

[tithonium.livejournal.com]

So long as I don't watch you make it. I have a problem with bones.

[tithonium.livejournal.com]

Oh, gods, yes. Unrecognizably processed animal flesh for the win!

Where's my vat-grown cow-derived meat-product?

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

As I said above, from my experience the industry, the photo almost certainly _isn't_ what they claim it is. It's probably an icecream extruder, because it looks just like the icecream extruders I've seen, and not like the forcemeat centrifuges...

[pielology.livejournal.com]

What else are you supposed to serve the marrow in though?