Welcome! I hope you participate more in the future!

Teresa

summershine, I know what you mean. You have to be careful when purchasing meat. Their chicken is "enhanced with up to a 15% solution", as well. Another thing I've learned is that the only beef that is graded is the one marked Steakhouse Choice. Otherwise you are only getting Select or below. I learned that lesson the hard way, like you.
Even when you buy the Steakhouse Choice, you are still getting the bottom of the barrel, I fear.

summershine, welcome to the Cooking Forum. Your first post isn't just a complaint, it's a VALID complaint, so complain away.

I agree, things are all "enhanced" from chicken to pork, and now apparently beef. Ugh. That's just a way of making you pay $$$ per pound for salt and water

I never buy perishables at WalMart. Their produce is abysmal, their fish and seafood is nearly all from China and their meat is mostly "flavor enhanced". Ugh. Plus, now that they've "reorganized" and don't have about half the stuff they used to have, their prices aren't lower either. They'll "price match" but you have to know everyone's prices for them to match anything.

I'm just really glad I can grow my own beef and even here in town I have tomato plants in the back yard.

Annie

Welcome to the forum, Summershine. You've hit on one of my major peeves.

I believe that WMT's Steakhouse choice is also 'enhanced'. The only meat that I buy at WalMart is some of the whole chickens, if they're not enhanced and the chubs of ground chuck which is quite good, actually. Also, I've found that most of the frozen Cornish hens haven't been tampered with.

A lot of the Tyson chicken products are enhanced so you have to be careful with that. Another brand to steer clear of is Hormel's 'Always Tender' pork products. Awful, awful stuff.

And it's not just WalMart. Same story at the regional chain, Copps/Roundy's, which pretty much owned this town for years & years. And Aldi, although I sometimes find unenhanced chicken there (but not always.) I had to drive to the other side of town to a County Market to get meat. Or to a mom & pop grocery in a nearby town. A Save A Lot store opened here just a few weeks ago and, surprisingly, much of meat is not enhanced.

Anyone on a reduced sodium diet especially needs to watch these meat products like a hawk. Many of them have added sodium beyond what occurs naturally in the meat.

None of the grocery store factory meat tastes anything like I remember homegrown beef & pork tasting, though. And for the price of meat, most of which is mediocre at best, you'd think the producers could provide something actually worth buying!

Anyway, I'm so glad that you stopped to chat. It's great to have some new faces joining us!

Ci

Welcome Summershine!

I've never seen enhanced beef, but I will certainly keep my eyes peeled for that on the labeling. Thansk for the warning.

Alexa

Hi,
I read this forum occasionally but this message rang a bell with me. I bought a rib eye steak at Rainbow (Roundy's) service meat counter to have as a special treat. I broiled it to medium rare after letting it come to room temperature. It was inedible. I couldn't chew it and neither could my husband who will usually eat anything I cook. It went down the garbage disposal ($12,00 worth of awful meat). We both grew up in the country where we raised our own beef and though I never find anything like that, I thought a rib eye was pretty reliable. Not fond of the Hormel "enhanced" either. Seems I just can't find any meat that tastes good.

Oh, for the good old days!!

I usually have been pleased with meat purchased from Rainbow. Although in fairness I've gotten bad stuff on occasion from most anyplace. You could have taken it back for a refund or exchange but I usually don't do that.

I've never been impressed with Walmart's fresh items. Nor Sam's Club (Walmart's purported "upscale" shop, though the only thing I've found upscale there is that it costs more) or Costco for that matter. Target has limited selection but I've had good luck with stuff there, although I don't buy much meat there.

All this water-added stuff is annoying to me. And hiding it like they do is even more annoying.

Another sympathizer here. It's grocery store day and I have 2 lists because there are 2 places to buy groceries here: a mom & pop grocery that has OK meat, very narrow selection of produce and way-too-high prices for a cartfull of ordinary items. And then there's WM 15 miles away which has only ordinary items, unacceptable meat, and much more variety of produce. So my task is to get everything I need at WM every 2 weeks, and get meat as needed right down the street.

They're not hiding the enhancements, and hopefully it would be illegal to do so, but the font used is the smallest available. You practically need a magnifying glass to buy meats if you want to know what's "in it" - a phrase which should never even apply to meat!! The phrase I can remember seeing is "an up to 8% marinate solution may have been added." What?! Why?! The onus IS on the consumer to read the labels, though, so kudos to you for doing it!

WM used to sell BGH milk and public pressure caused them to quit doing that. If enough of us complain about the meat, maybe they'll quit messing with it.

Just a plug for Costco. At least here in California, they sell real unadulterated Choice meat and occasionally they have some Prime, as well. Aside from burger meat at a small local store where they grind their own, I've only bought meat from Costco for years now. Just wrap and freeze.

I would have definitely returned the inedible meat and complained loudly to the manager. I'm not happy with the beef at our local market, but we do buy it at Costco. Pork & chicken come from the best local supermarket, sometimes TJ's (their meat can be sketchy), or Whole Foods (inconsistent). It's not like we can do a one stop anymore. Sigh...

From the sounds of your stories I'm lucky to live in a big city I guess. I only buy meat at Central Market (which is HEB-owned), and, rarely, Costco. I do like Costco's fruit, although Central Market has the best selection of produce.

I think most of the meat at WM is "enhanced". An easy, for them, way to make their meat appear to be cheaper than the competition's. 15% of what you are paying for is salt solution. I'm not "anti-Walmart" but I would never buy meat there.

I have returned meats mostly before cooking because of smell or grayness. Hey if they can sell meats like that, I feel perfectly comfortable returning it. Although it leaves me with a sad feeling that I cannot any longer find good, delicious meat anymore.

Now that the villagers have their torches lit and pitchforks in hand, it's time to stop a minute and talk some things. There are two things going on here. One is enhancement. The other is plain bad meat. Enhancement is the addition of water, with any of the following: salt, flavors, phosphates, antioxidants. What goes in depends on what effect is desired. Some presume you don't know how to handle meat, because most people don't know. Fowl, for instance. It's nearly always overdone and dry. The purveyor doesn't want have his chicken accused of being "dry," so in go some things very much like the "self-basting" turkey.

Some increase shelf life. I'm not fond of that, because I'd like to know a bit more about how long my meat has been sitting there at display temperature, and without additives, I at least have an idea when it's been a bit long.

Color is a big one. Not really shelf life in terms of spoilage, but definitely in terms of appearance. And water being given off can, without being restrained by enhancement, cause a seller to have to dump meat merely because the water collecting in the package puts people off.

Mostly, this is because of the economics of packaging meat in the store package way back in the packing plant makes it more and more common. It needs some help to make the trip.

BUT, you sure want enhanced meats to be cheaper, because you're buying the water and salts, etc. by the meats per pound cost. USDA is very close to requiring labels to have the percentage of added solution.

But there is nothing necessarily evil about enhancements. However, I prefer to buy beef that's so close to the source that it doesn't need anything. My local grocery (H.E.B.) adds nothing. And I can always use the meat market I pass on the way. (Don't tell me you have to be in a big city. The H.E.B.'s location is far from that, and the meat market is out in the country.) I don't mind chicken being enhanced for casual cooking. For anything sophisticated, I want more control. Their pork, for the most part, has nothing added. I wouldn't accept a pork chop with any injected water. That would make it impossible to prepare well. But so many cook their pork chops to death, and since they're going to ruin them anyway, they might as well at least have they moist, even though otherwise wretched.

But if meat tastes bad, it isn't the enhancements. It's just bad meat. In fact, without the enhancements, it would have been even more dreadful. Texture's a different thing. Some meats suffer from enhancement. Some require you to know if it's been enhanced, so that you can account for that in the preparation.

But I must say that the finest meat experience ever was on a huge (big as some counties) state park down on the border. They keep some classic longhorn steers running free range and eating what they can find. I was lucky enough to have been down there on a geology thing and chasing cactus rustlers when they butchered a steer in the old range way that leaves a lot of the blood in the meat and barbecued it. Nothing that ever came out of a packing plant can be like that was.

"But there is nothing necessarily evil about enhancements.
At least for me, it isn't the enhancements, it is the secrecy. If there isn't anything evil, why the fine print?
All this talk has reaped one benefit for me, I have started talking with and learning from the local butcher.
This guy has taught me more in the last weeks, than I ever knew! I did not know that all the "butchers" at WalMart aren't really butchers. They are people in white coats that take packaged meat out of boxes and put them in the cooler.
I have also learned that many stores spray the cases with a solution to keep the meat from turning grey. Perhaps that is not necessarily evil, either, but I want to know what is going on!
I am surrounded by folks who "grow their own meat" as they say. The problem my butcher friend tells me is-if you purchase an entire side of a bad cow, you got bad meat for a year!

It would probably be more accurate to observe that the folks in the WalMart meat department aren't meat cutters. A butcher can take meat from on the hoof through slaughter and all the way to end cuts, including knowing how to scald a hog, etc. A meat cutter receives primal cuts, the major divisions that a carcass is broken down into, and prepares retail cuts.

The terms tend to blur today, because fewer markets receive whole carcasses that in the past. I would be surprised to find a fully qualified butcher in a grocery store. A knowledgeable and experienced butcher, especially one in a sophisticated market where they regularly consult with good chefs, is a fine resource. They can be absolutely essential for some things, like finding meats that are hard to find in the local area or even in the country.

The same is true in the seafood department. Very few real fishmongers around, but I find more knowledgeable staff in the grocery seafood departments than in the meat department.

I was pleased when Target added food depts because some of the meat is Choice grade. The local Ralph's (owned by Kroger) & Von's (owned by Safeway) have only Select grade, which I don't buy.

After this discussion I checked the Target meat labels. In small print it says the meat is enhanced with up to 12% solution. !! Needless to say, I won't be buying it again.

I guess if I want beef I'll have to go to a butcher shop. Sigh. Thanks to all of you for the eye opener.

Kathleen, try the meat at Costco. It's generally superior to whatever you find in ordinary groceries.

If you go to a Japanese market, you can find Wagyu or Kobe beef. Since I seldom buy beef, I prefer to buy it from Mitsuwa - it's about the same price as the sashimi from Spain, and I generally prefer the sashimi. For something special like a birthday dinner, I think it is worth the price. I haven't looked for Wagyu beef in other markets, and so there may be other places to find it.

Lars

I got so disgusted with the quality of the pork I was finding in Virginia that I went in with my neighbors and we bought a pig and had it butchered.

VERY good meat, and no "flavor enhancer" added.

Lately I've been buying natural beef from a local producer that is exceptional. It does cost more but the quality and having organic make it worth the extra price. I have thought about buying a side but it's more that we would eat in five years. I have to make special trips for the beef as it's sold at specialty produce stands and some country grocers in the area.

Gerald, my small local grocery actually has a butcher, they get whole/halved carcasses and cut them up on site, and I can get "speciality" cuts if I want. I don't, because I raise my own beef and have it cut to my specifications.

We don't have any fresh fish, though, only frozen and canned, so that's the trade off. Well, we do have fresh salmon, lake perch and walleye, if I'm lucky enough to catch some but then I'm responsible for my own filets.

Are solutions/injections/etc. evil? Not in and of themselves, but hiding them in tiny print that I can't see without my reading glasses and charging prime beef price for it, now that's wrong. It's unethical, it's sneaky, and it's prevalent.

Annie

Wonder if the "US Version" will be enanced?

Here is a link that might be useful: US grows version of Kobe beef

I don't buy meat that has been "enhanced". It didn't use to be all that common in Canada. I've have noticed recently that it is becoming more common. Especially in grocery stores that do not have a meat counter. It is still easy to avoid though.

Ann

I'm with you, Annie. It's really cheating to add water weight & then charge premium prices per pound.

I'm going to look at the Target site to see there is a "contact us" area.

Kathleenca, if you are far enough south, try Stater Bros. They started as a meat market only, then expanded to be a full service grocery store. They still "do" beef VERY well. We buy very little meat from other stores.

Donna

I can't really blame the stores trying to make more money. Most people do not know what quality meat is.

It is a matter of supply and demand.

Customer don't demand high quality, vendors do not supply.

It is a crime what they are doing to seafood. I cannot find fresh shrimps, scallops anymore. Everything is treated to give that "nice" color and crunchy texture.

dcarch