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Meat Expert: No Such Thing as 'Uncured' Corned Beef
USAgNet - 03/16/2018

Millions of Americans will celebrate the St. Patrick's Day holiday this month with a "traditional" meal of corned beef and cabbage -- but most won't pause to consider what makes the meat so distinctive or how it ended up being a tradition.

And of those relatively few who do ponder the pink color and salty tang of their brisket, many will be misled by the label on their corned beef into thinking the meat has not been cured, according to Ed Mills, associate professor of meat science in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. But it's not a big deal, he believes.

"Many of the corned beef products you see in grocery stores these days have labels that say 'uncured,' but that's not really accurate," Mills said. "They have been cured, but the curing has occurred with nitrates and nitrites in added celery juice powder, sea salt or unrefined sugar -- and not by the customary large grains of salt, accompanied by a small amount of sodium nitrite."

Mills explained that meat processors use celery juice powder, sea salt or unrefined sugar to cure the meat and make corned beef because consumers are uneasy about nitrite being linked to cancer. Many are comforted by a label that states "no nitrates or nitrites added," because they perceive that substituting celery juice powder for salt in curing results in a more healthy product.

"That's an attractive claim, but my contention is that the processors making these products should be allowed to use different terminology that draws attention to the fact that they are cured, but in a different way," Mills said. "I kind of like the term, 'naturally cured.' But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not allowed processors to put that terminology on the labels of these products."

Still, nitrite is nitrite, Mills pointed out, and if the meat is colored pink after it has been thoroughly cooked, nitrates or nitrites have done their job, converting the natural myoglobin in beef to nitrosohemochrome. Nitrates and nitrites contribute to typical cured-meat color and flavor and reduce the risk of dangerous botulism during curing by inhibiting the growth of Clostridium botulinum spores. The curing reactions are the same whether nitrite is added as a pure crystalline salt or it comes from celery juice powder.

However, Mills maintains that it makes little difference. While he concedes that there is reason to be concerned about nitrite or nitrosamines produced by nitrite as carcinogens, he doesn't see corned beef, eaten in moderation, as a threat.


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