Meat Glue

[andiesenji]

to avoid this kind of thing.

Apparently it is difficult to discover just how much this is being used.

This video is not in the U.S. but who knows.

Just how can one test for transglutamase in meats. Knowing some of the tricks of the trade that have been perpetrated in recent years, this makes me wonder.

[bmdaniel]

The first question is whether it's something to even care about?

[Tri2Cook]

It's an enzyme that encourages the bonding of specific amino acids, not an actual glue or chemical frankenstein, so it's really not all that scary if you leave out the term "meat glue". But if one wanted to avoid it for whatever reason, sticking with your basic cuts of meat and avoiding the restructured stuff like some nuggets and patties is a good place to win a large part of the battle. It may require some detective work to sniff out the rest.

[emannths]

When they fix their site, Cooking Issues has a nice primer on it, including info about origin and safety:

TG is safe. It will not harm you or glue your hands together. TG is deactivated by most cooking techniques and imparts no off-flavors to foods. (There is some debate about off-flavors. Read the next section, Long, Long Story.) TG is delivered as a powder and, like all powders, should not be inhaled. TG should not be consumed directly in large quantities, but consuming active TG in the levels recommended for food usage is harmless. TG is classified by the FDA as a GRAS product (generally recognized as safe) when used properly. Although some studies have shown that stomach enzymes have difficulty breaking down proteins after they have been bonded by TG, other studies have shown that these bonded proteins are absorbed and broken down in the body into normal products as though they had never been bonded.

[IndyRob]

The first question is whether it's something to even care about?

Well, yes, I think. I certainly think there's a fair advertising issue, and is not necesarily something that should escape government oversight. But at the same time, it's not something that's necessarily horrible.

Transglutiminase, as I understand it, already exists in all eGullet posters. It's not artificial. It binds our bodies together.

There are two risks that are exposed in this video. First, that inhalation of transglutinmase is bad. Certainly, gluing parts of your lungs together is not good. Hence the masks. But once applied, it's not exactly forming a cloud.

The other risk is the same one we experience with ground meats. The risk of external contamination festering on the insides of meats. And I think here is the real issue.

[bmdaniel]

The other risk is the same one we experience with ground meats. The risk of external contamination festering on the insides of meats. And I think here is the real issue.

In this sense it is not different than primal jaccarding, which apparently is not an entirely rare practice (I believe Nathan M has commented on this previously).

Incidentally, I used to be a management consultant, and I still remember seeing a hospitality industry knowledge primer that discussed gluing tenderloins together to increase yield (e.g. make use of the tails). That was the first I ever heard of transglutaminase.

[Chris Hennes]

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding of the inhalation hazard with Activa is the same as with fine sawdust and the like, and is not specific to the enzyme itself. Is that not the case?

[IndyRob]

The other risk is the same one we experience with ground meats. The risk of external contamination festering on the insides of meats. And I think here is the real issue.

In this sense it is not different than primal jaccarding, which apparently is not an entirely rare practice (I believe Nathan M has commented on this previously).

Incidentally, I used to be a management consultant, and I still remember seeing a hospitality industry knowledge primer that discussed gluing tenderloins together to increase yield (e.g. make use of the tails). That was the first I ever heard of transglutaminase.

I have absolutley no problems with it's use in fresh product, but I do want to know what's been done to that bargain steak that looks like it's about to go off. Aged and festering are not necessarily the same things.

[IndyRob]

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding of the inhalation hazard with Activa is the same as with fine sawdust and the like, and is not specific to the enzyme itself. Is that not the case?

Because I love the potential of TG, I'd love to think that it's totally safe. But C'mon. It is meat glue. Our lungs are frilly meat devices. Sawdust, my a....

[Chris Hennes]

Inhaling sawdust (or any other small particles) is quite bad for you.

[IndyRob]

Inhaling sawdust (or any other small particles) is quite bad for you.

Well, yeah. Let me put it this way.... I'm a smoker who sands drywall without a mask. I would never use TG without either a mask or at least a careful arm's length application. Drywall dust does not, by its very nature, glue tissues together, TG does.

[Chris Hennes]

I wonder if that's actually true in your lungs though. The pH of meat is considerable lower than living tissue, for example. I don't think it's a sure thing that it will actually be able to do its protein bonding trick in the environment of your lungs: of course it may, but it's also a very, very fine powder. And I certainly don't sand drywall without a mask! It's not that it will kill you instantly, it's that it'll kill you over time...

[IndyRob]

It's not that it will kill you instantly, it's that it'll kill you over time...

As will butter. But I seldom see butter puveyors wearing masks.

[AaronM]

A lot of people who don't understand Activa in this thread.

Inhaling a little bit of it will affect you in no way. It's not super glue. It doesn't set immediately on contact with moisture.

This is baseless panic.

[technophile50]

Don't worry about bacterial contamination - there's an "app for that" &;>)

If some supermarket chain or high end restaurant gets caught on undercover camera marketing meat glued trimmings as expensive "filet mignon", the effect on the industry is gonna be like alar on apples.

[JHeald]

It appears as though excess transglutaminase is a culprit in Cystic Fibrosis. From the abstract of the linked article, I would suspect that inhaling a significant amount of powdered transglutaminase would result in pulmonary inflammation, not lung tissue being glues together.

It's also important to remember a couple of important things:

1) There are anti-transglutaminase enzymes that will eventually counteract any inhaled enzymes.

2) The inhaled enzymes will only be active for a short period of time, so unless someone is constantly inhaling this stuff, there probably won't be any long term side effects.

Contamination sounds like a much bigger issue than inhaling Activa.

[tirgoddess]

Was just sent an alarmist email regarding meat glue.....should I be alarmed/concerned? Do you see this stuff in practice? What do you think? ~Maria

My link

[Mjx]

It appears as though excess transglutaminase is a culprit in Cystic Fibrosis. From the abstract of the linked article, I would suspect that inhaling a significant amount of powdered transglutaminase would result in pulmonary inflammation, not lung tissue being glues together.

. . . .

The transglutaminase discussed in this article refers to that which occurs endogenously in the tissues of the respiratory system, and to aberrant patterns arising from mutation, and not to an exogenously derived product:

'. . . .tissue transglutaminase (TG2), a multifunctional enzyme critical to several diseases, is constitutively up-regulated in CF airways and drives chronic inflammation.'

(SUMOylation of tissue transglutaminase as link between oxidative stress and inflammation., Luciani et al., J Immunol. 2009 Aug 15;183(4):2775-84. Epub 2009 Jul 22)

Taking reasonable precautions with culinary transglutaminase makes sense (as others have pointed out, like any particulate matter, it is likely to irritate the lungs if it is inhaled), but it should not be confused with the tissue transglutaminase.

[andiesenji]

I'm not worried about the health aspects of inhaling the powder.

I just don't want to be spending my dollars on inexpensive meat scraps that have been formed into something that looks like a tenderloin.

Frankly, I think I will stick to meat with bones that is in a form that is less likely to be "manufactured" or otherwise manipulated, with or without meat glue.

Although I'm sure that some unscrupulous person will find a way to produce even these but probably not immediately.

[Mjx]

I'm not worried about the health aspects of inhaling the powder.

I just don't want to be spending my dollars on inexpensive meat scraps that have been formed into something that looks like a tenderloin.

Frankly, I think I will stick to meat with bones that is in a form that is less likely to be "manufactured" or otherwise manipulated, with or without meat glue.

Although I'm sure that some unscrupulous person will find a way to produce even these but probably not immediately.

Can't argue with that: Meat costs plenty, even when you're not defrauded outright. I'm a bit confused, however, since I'd expect the USDA to require that this be mentioned, as is the case with 'enhanced' pork, and 'crab' sticks that are a sort of melange of everything (but crab).

The .pdf file of Rules and Regulations Federal Register Vol. 68, No. 82 Tuesday, April 29, 2003 discusses the use of transglutaminase in meat briefly and non-specifically, but does list a contact (p. 10, middle column, about halfway down).

[Dave the Cook]

Can't argue with that: Meat costs plenty, even when you're not defrauded outright. I'm a bit confused, however, since I'd expect the USDA to require that this be mentioned, as is the case with 'enhanced' pork, and 'crab' sticks that are a sort of melange of everything (but crab). Can't they be contacted directly?

The first commercial application for transglutaminase was surimi -- aka crab sticks.

[Mjx]

The first commercial application for transglutaminase was surimi -- aka crab sticks.

Did they contain actual crab? The things I'm talking about definitely had no crab in them (according to the ingredient list), but were described as 'crab style', or something of that sort. But if you did read the label, you knew what you were getting.

[Dave the Cook]

I don't think surimi has ever been anything but a transformation of white-fleshed fish into something that resembles the meat of crustaceans. Are you implying deceptive practices?

[Mjx]

I don't think surimi has ever been anything but a transformation of white-fleshed fish into something that resembles the meat of crustaceans. Are you implying deceptive practices?

Not with the product I was talking about: That was clearly labelled (I know not everyone reads ingredient lists, but it's still the consumer's responsibility to check).

What I'm wondering about is whether meat bits that are bonded together with transglutaminase are labeled as such. If not, I'd consider that deceptive.

[Chris Hennes]

Folks, I strongly encourage you all to read both the actual article at cooking issues, as well as the comments on the article. The notion that one could glue together scraps of meat and that the result is "undetectable" is completely absurd. No one confuses a coarse-ground sausage with whole muscle: transglutimanase is not some magic voodoo potion that aligns muscle strands and mysteriously produces a whole-seeming muscle from various parts: it's just a particularly powerful bonding agent. If you make a piece of meat from scraps, it's going to be obvious that it's a reconstruction, just like a sausage.