Y’know how there’s those food facts people gleefully let loose… things you really didn’t want to know? I’m not talking about bullshit like KFC serving rabbit, but queasy facts that put you off your dinner quicker than Channel 10′s bright idea for Monday-to-Friday primetime viewing (an Australian version of The Biggest Loser? Five nights a week? Do I really need daily updates on what flabby, wobbly, sweating, grunting hefty folk have been doing all day while I tuck into my meat and veg?)
Adam does a lot of advertising work for a Major National Supermarket. Part of his job is creating those gleaming, shiny, slightly scary “food porn” ads in the newspaper. He was chatting to someone responsible for managing the supermarket chain’s butchers department, who was explaining part of the meat preperation which occurs in every store.
Namely, THE MEAT IS SPRAYED RED TO MAKE IT LOOK TASTIER.
Now, I really didn’t need to know this little cutlet of a fact. Vaguely disgusted but still suspicious, I cut into a defrosted steak we’d bought this week, and what do you know? There’s an eerie, scary, layer of flourescent red on the outside layer of the meat. Which makes sense – meat is grey! I understand the reasoning behind the move, who wants to buy grey-looking meat after all, but red spray? Holy crap. I feel like I need to obsessive-compusively wash and scrape off the spray before I cook everything now.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, after recounting the revelation to my mate Julian, he turned in surprise. “How could you not know that, don’t you read the internet?”
“I’m sticking to chicken,” I assured him.
“Oh, supermarkets bleach chicken,” he corrected me. And I’m sure they do. God knows what they do to mince, do they freaking let it mellow out in a bucket of paint for a day?
Can’t trust the freaking deli. I’m off to eat Saladas for tea. :(