I always check all meat packages for "enhanced with a flavor solution" which is a euphemism for salt water. The stores do that so they can have a low price per pound, but you are really paying more, since you are paying for the water.

Around here Kroger, Aldi, Walmart, and Piggly Wiggly are bad about that. My Walmart lately has started carrying some meat that is not enhanced, but you have to check. I usually get my meat from Publix. They have a very good butcher dept. My son likes Costco, but I usually can't use the amount in their packages.

I go to a Cuban meat market to buy pork, and I've not noticed salt in it. There's a Halal meat market next door to it, but they do not pork - I asked without knowing what kind of a market it was.

I recommend that you go to a Latin meat market.

Lars, most of us don't have those type of meat markets. Other than grocery stores, we only have one.

Perhaps an all natural pork would be better for you. ( I don't eat any pork as the hormones and antibiotics make me ill. )

I think that many/most chains and "big box" type stores will have the "enhanced" meat and it's not just pork, chicken is the same way. Yes, it's just a way to make you pay meat prices for salt and water.

I'm fortunate to raise my own, or get it from a local farmer, but others are not as lucky. I guess it's just "buyer beware", and be sure to check the labels.

Annie

Hmmm.......other than packaged and seasoned pork loins (and any cured pork), pork is sold in grocery stores here as fresh meat. Just like beef is. There is nothing added. You can even get pork loins and racks of ribs that way. And one store sells ground pork that is just that ....ground up pork. I often get it to make my own breakfast sausage and to add to meat loaf.

We don't have any sort of Latin meat markets although we do have regular meat markets. I have not noticed this trend at our smaller independent stores though so I will have to buy there. I seldom even buy meat at ALDI but I was there and needed something for dinner so I bought some pork steaks that day. I will be sure and pay more attention in the future!

We aren't salt free here and even for us, that meat was very salty! GAH!

Just to support, Aldi 'cause I love them, they do carry quite a bit of organic and natural meats. Their organic chicken is great.

I use pork judiciously, I love country ham cooked in vegetables.

Organic chicken? Ours never has any organic meat except hamburger. I'm jealous.

Most of the grocery stores here have larger selections of organic or naturally raised meat than they do the nonorganic stuff. Free range organic chickens are de rigueur!! But then I live in tree hugger central and organic food products are a BIG DEAL here :-)

I will shop Walmart for various items but never meat or fresh produce. Those I reserve for better grocery stores with an actual butcher/meat department that cuts and packages the meat themselves.

We've only Publix (need to take a look as I've not been there yet), Kroger, and Food City, but both those offer non-pre-packaged pork. I've bought one brand of pre-packaged pork tenderloin, already flavored, but I don't recall it being overly salty. I do prefer that which comes from the grocery store's butcher/meat dept. Not that one can call them butchers here. Sorry you had that experience.

Be wary at Publix. They like to push their "greenwise" meats, which are "all-natural" but not organic. Some stores have good stuff, but you need to check carefully. I haven't seen any pork that isn't Smithfield or equivalent at ours, though, although we do have Murray's organic chicken sometimes, and regular Murray's most of the time. But my friends in Orlando can't get any really organic meat at their publix anymore.

If you're worried about salt solution in your meat, take a look at this that I just saw online. I live in the same area as gardengal and only buy organic meat, most from local vendors and lots of local, fresh fish. I'd become a vegetarian before I'd eat industrially grown meat:

banned-drugs-detected-in-us-meat-supply

Well, gee thanks Olychick, now what? LOL! I don't wish to become a vegetarian, and we don't have the property, health, or time to raise our own.

I guess many of us are at the whims of whomever is responsible. I'm guessing it's a combination.

Locally grown beef around here is scarce. The last time my neighbor bought a locally raised whole cow (she split with her sister), she ended up with poorly butchered tough meat - they tossed away several hundred dollars' worth after trying everything to make it any of it edible. It's not just 'industrial' around here. As for additives on locally grown, I doubt it but who knows? One would have to have it tested.

Slowly but surely you can seek out and develop relationships with good local producers. They are out there. I use the 'net and also facebook to connect. We have local farm markets too. It takes trial and error to find good suppliers, as there is a lot of carp masquerading as wholesome. And then you find the great supplier and they go out of business or retire!

And then the freezer is your friend. But we buy the cheapie meat at the store and just eat it judiciously. Someday we may step up to the underground of locally sourced meat, but not there yet. I befriend hunters too, the venison around where I live is pretty good since the deer feed on only the best from the farmer's fields . . .

you need to go out in the wild ... and get one of them thar razorbacks ... have friends that travel down there every year

I had a scientist friend recently tell me, while discussing hunting and such, that wild boar are riddled with parasites and she would never eat them.

Remember when even supermarket pork had flavor? Now it is so lean, eating it often is more a texture experience than one that is savory. I've resorted to a lot of herbs and spices, and/or smoking the meat. I think that is why they sodium it up so much.

Bumblebeeze, I'd heard the same about wild boar and bear. We have a hunting season for wild boar here as they are tearing up the forest floors and causing serious long-term damage. It's my understanding it must be cooked very thoroughly to well-done. I've never eaten bear, nor would I care to.

Rub your supermarket pork with olive oil. It keeps it from drying out. Just look for the word "enhanced", that means salt and fake junk to flavor.

I've had bear. I thought it was fatty and tasted gross.

Interesting, l pink. Back when bear was on the menu in FL they supposedly killed them primarily for the fat and they rendered out as much of that as they could, to keep for use on its own, as cooking fat and of course, bear's grease for hair.