Is it OK to use food coloring to make ground beef? #1 Truth

Is it OK to use food coloring to make ground beef?

The truth is that we humans eat with our eyes first, then with our noses, and last with our lips. In summary, if the meal doesn’t look nice, we won’t smell it. If a food item does not appear or smell appealing, the chances of us gleefully stuffing it into our mouths are little to none.

Clever food and beverage companies use this information to convince consumers to purchase their goods by making their items as appealing as possible. As a result, orange juice seems orange, cabbages appear green and lively, and meat appears pink and healthy.

What we perceive is sometimes a fabricated reality, and marketers frequently employ food coloring to improve their goods. Is that OK in the case of ground beef?

Is It Ok Using Food Coloring to Make Ground Beef?

It is not permitted to use food coloring in the preparation of ground beef. The US Department of Agriculture severely prohibits the adding of food coloring to ground beef and frequently inspects all ground beef products for this and a variety of other potential violations.

Ground Beef’s Natural Color

One of life’s peculiarities is that we humans are readily fooled by looks, which is sad given how much significance we put on how things seem.

For example, we often associate beef’s freshness with its redness, however, in reality, the redder the ground beef, the longer it has been exposed to air, and hence the less fresh it is!

Man derives beef from the muscles of oxen, and it is worth noting that beef has a purple tint in its natural condition.

(Before ground beef, there is sometimes a purple hue on the margins of slices of meat, particularly on the edges of newly cut portions. This hue occurs when the flesh’s natural color is seen.)

Unfortunately, after man has tampered with the beef and crushed it up, a vital beef protein known as myoglobin is churned up with the rest of the meat and is exposed to oxygen in the air.

Myoglobin oxidizes (chemically binds with oxygen) and becomes a deep crimson as long as the oxygen content in the air is 20% or above.

If you put on your thinking hat, you could find yourself thinking, Hmm. My blood is red owing to oxygen, rust is red due to rusted metals oxidizing due to oxygen, and now the myoglobin thing turns ground beef red due to oxygen. Maybe oxidation causes the redness?

Well, wiseacre, if that’s what you meant, you’re dead on. When ground beef comes into touch with air and there is enough oxygen in that air, the meat takes on a deep red hue, which customers associate with freshness.

The Redness of Ground Beef Does Not Necessarily Indicate Freshness

Ground beef manufacturers may boost the redness of their product in a variety of methods that do not violate the US Department of Agriculture’s restriction on food coloring for ground beef.

MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging)

This solution entails putting the ground beef in an airtight container with a carefully adjusted environment that is high in oxygen among other gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen.

As previously stated, the myoglobin protein in beef oxidizes to a deep red, and the sealed environment helps preserve a hostile environment for bacteria that cause spoiling. MAP, in effect, keeps ground beef redder and fresher for a longer period of time.

Sodium Nitrate

Sodium nitrate is a chemical agent that acts as a bridge between myoglobin, oxygen, and other chemicals found in ground beef. Sodium nitrate aids in the binding of myoglobin to oxygen, enhancing the redness of the flesh.

Simultaneously, sodium nitrate binds to other chemicals in ground beef, allowing it to remain in the meat for a longer period of time. As a result, when sodium nitrate is present, ground beef appears redder for longer, regardless of freshness.

Coloring Ground Beef Outside the USA

Coloring ground beef artificially using food coloring is similarly severely prohibited in the European Union (EU), but there is a fundamental difference between how the US and the EU approach the use of MAP on ground beef.

In the United States, MAP is regarded as a method of preserving the color of ground beef. I believe their reasoning is sound since the MAP does not change the color of ground beef; it just retains it where it normally exists, which sounds reasonable to me.

The EU, on the other hand, views artificially retaining the color of the meat as a sneaky, devious manoeuvre, if not an obvious fraud, and has prohibited the technique. Their reasoning (which I find difficult to translate) is that MAP-protected ground beef may seem healthy and fresh for a long time after it is safe to consume.

or carbon monoxide packaging, and some activist organizations sued the government and campaigned for years to identify all MAP or carbon monoxide packed beef and poultry products. Finally, as they used to say in the UK, you pay your money and take your pick. Yet, even in the United States, some individuals are wary about unlabeled MAP.

I’m not sure why food companies would resist something so mild and harmless, especially when no one suggested labeling MAP-packaged items harmful or unhealthy.

Maybe the food industry regarded this as the thin edge of the wedge? If this is the case, it is terrible since I, for one, am a great believer in providing everyone with the knowledge and freedom to make their own educated judgments.

Frequently Asked Questions to Is it Okay Using Food Coloring to Make Ground Beef?

Afterword: Is It Ok Using Food Coloring to Make Ground beef?

Food coloring is not permitted in the production of ground beef in the United States, where the Department of Agriculture has officially prohibited the practice.

Yet, astute sellers might get around the limitation via a number of techniques that maintain them inside the legal framework.