Mechanically separated meat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2007)

Mechanically separated meat (MSM), also known as mechanically recovered/reclaimed meat (MRM), is a paste-like meat product produced by forcing beef, pork, turkey or chicken bones, with attached edible meat, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue. Mechanically separated meat has been used in certain meat and meat products since the late 1960s. This product can be contrasted with meat extracted by advanced meat recovery systems. The most common use of MSM is into hotdogs.

Contents 1 History 2 Safety and regulation 3 References 4 See also

[edit] History

The practice of mechanically harvesting meat that would otherwise be unusable dates back to the 1950s, when mechanical hand tools were developed to help remove these scraps and minimize waste. By the 1960s, machines were developed that did this more efficiently and automatically, in a process designed by Vincent Gerbino and Michael Antoniades.^{[citation needed]} This allowed companies to use these less expensive raw materials and, in turn, offer these products to the public for a lower price.

[edit] Safety and regulation

Questions arose in the 1980s as to the safety of mechanically separated meat. In 1982, a report published by U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on mechanically separated meat said it was safe and established a standard of identity for the food product. Some restrictions were made on how much can be used and the type of products in which it can be used. These restrictions were based on concerns for limited intake of certain components in mechanically separated meat like calcium. Mechanically separated meat must be labeled as "mechanically separated" pork, chicken, or turkey in the ingredients statement. Hot dogs can contain no more than 20 percent mechanically separated pork. The USDA's rules became effective November 4, 1996, and were later updated, stressing:

“

Due to FSIS regulations enacted in 2004 to protect consumers against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, mechanically separated beef is considered inedible and is prohibited for use as human food. It is not permitted in hot dogs or any other processed product.[1]

”

Concerns were raised again when the BSE epidemic, otherwise known as Mad-Cow Disease, was discovered in the United Kingdom in 1986. Since bits of the spinal cord (the part most likely to be carrying BSE)^{[citation needed]} often got mixed in with the rest of the meat; products using mechanically separated meat taken from the carcasses of bovines were at higher risk for transmitting BSE to humans. As a result, in 1989 the United Kingdom tightened restrictions to help ensure that pieces of the spinal cord would not be present in mechanically separated meat taken from bovines.^[2] MRM may not be described as meat on food labels.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Specified risk material (SRM)
• Advanced meat recovery (AMR)
• Meat slurry