Processed meat

WaxiesDargle

Hi

processed meats have been in the news lately saying that research has shown that they appear to be cancer inducing...one quoted was sauasages....

Can anyone tell me if Bernard Matthews Turkey Breast is processed meat?...I must admit my knowledge of what is and isn't processed in limited!

Thanks

RHYSDAD

WaxiesDargle wrote: »

Hi

processed meats have been in the news lately saying that research has shown that they appear to be cancer inducing...one quoted was sauasages....

Can anyone tell me if Bernard Matthews Turkey Breast is processed meat?...I must admit my knowledge of what is and isn't processed in limited!

Thanks

If you mean 'is it tampered with in anyway, for instance, having lots of water and various other muck injected into it' i'd say probably......I don't know your financial status but a good butcher would supply you a decent piece of turkey. Bernard Matthews should be avoided at all costs.....

geordie_joe

WaxiesDargle wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if Bernard Matthews Turkey Breast is processed meat?...

I can't find it on the Tesco web site, but his Premium chicken slices have the following

Chicken (80%),Water ,Lactose ,Stabilisers (Carrageenan, Diphosphates) ,Salt ,Potato & Rice Starches ,Milk Protein ,Spirit Vinegar ,Flavouring ,Acidity Regulator (Bicarbonate of Soda) ,Caramelised Sugar Syrup ,Rosemary Extract ,Dextrose

and his premium Turkey slices have

Turkey (60%),Water ,Potato & Rice Starches ,Salt ,Stabilisers (Carrageenan, Diphosphates) ,Dextrose ,Milk Protein ,Natural Flavouring ,Whey Protein ,Rosemary Extract ,Antioxidant (Sodium Ascorbate) ,Garlic Extract ,Preservative (Sodium Nitrite)

So I would say probably too.

I wouldn't worry about it tho, researchers are always coming up with tenuous link to cancer. Nobody pays a researcher who finds nothing, so when researchers find nothing they grab at any straw they can, say there is a link and call for more research. A call for more research translated into english means "keep paying my wages a bit longer".

Stompa

Personally I steer well clear of Bernard Matthews products. If you compare the meat content with just about any other similar product (from a different producer) on the same shelf you'll find that the Bernard Matthews one is lower, and often much lower.

UnderPressure

I agree with the general theme avoid anything Bernard Matthews 99% of it is processed in some way and believe me if you seen what goes into some of these foods you would not feed them to a dog honestly....................

Odette

I dont eat meat (I eat fish) anymore because of processed meat, bleugh!

pelirocco

Unless it arrives on your plate complete with legs and feathers , then yes all meat is processed in some form or another . The further away from its natural form it appears the more it is processed .
Added to that you have to take into account that these turkeys are intensively reared , and that they import partly processed meat from a plant they have in Hungary .

Plus the avian flu scare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Bernard_Matthews_H5N1_outbreak

So would i eat it? ..............not in a million years ( nor any other processed meat )

Kadeeae

When I think Bernard Matthews I think of the poor birds being beaten with sticks . . . . don't think I'll ever forget that news report! We avoid most processed foods (but certainly not ALL/ALL of the time) just as a matter of choice. Feel that we are probably better off health wise the fewer added ingredients/preservatives/chemicals we consume.

Wallet is not always better off so just do the best we can

And yes, I would say definitely processed!!

spike7451

Remember Jamie Oliver's School Dinners when he looked at B.M's twizzers,twisters or whatever?...yuk!
I go to my butchers & buy one of his BBQ chickens for £3 ish,strip the meat off for sarnies ect,freeze the wings for later use & boil the carcass for stock.
Now THAT'S processed meat!!!......by ME!

WaxiesDargle

Thanks all

that tells me all I need to know

it's off the menu

dealer_2

The word you need to look for is REFORMED.

Nearly all meat is processed in some way. Its almost impossible to avoid. There are many tricks to increase both the size and the weight of the meat to make it appear better value. The most common of those is adding water.

But you can have a high meat content and still be getting poor quality. As I said at the start REFORMED is the word to look for. This is all the meat that could not be used as single cuts like quality joints, quality sliced ham etc. This meat is all thrown together, formed into a paste and then REFORMED into the shape of the meat they want it to look like. Good examples of this are cheap slice meats, value hams or the famous sunday beef joints that have very close knit meshes around them to stop it falling apart when cooking.

In the end quality cuts directly off an animal cost more to produce that this cheap reformed stuff. Its fine as long as you know that. A good butcher will be able to advise you on what they have or just read the packets in the super markets. They have to provide the information by law. But of course they don't have to tell you to read it.