Anatomy - Gracey's Meat Hygiene - page 41

disease, a condition in which the mucosa of the small
intestine becomes abnormal owing to contact with die-
tary gluten, a reserve protein found in wheat, barley, rye
and probably oats. The undeclared presence of cereal
probably therefore has a serious relevance.
Animal-based proteins often include those parts of the
carcase which are of low value and only some of which
are legally defined as 'meat, for example, pork rind, bone
protein, urea, dried blood and plasma. While there can
be no objection to their inclusion, it is the excessive
extent of usage, in amounts far in excess of that naturally
associated with the type of meat involved, which consti-
tutes abuse and fraud. On occasions, pork rind is incor-
porated into a product in which there is no pork flesh
present.
Rind may be cooked with water, emulsified with milk
protein or vegetable proteins or dehydrated, ground and
rehydrated (using as much as four times its own weight
of water) before being incorporated into a sausage or
'meat' product.
Bone protein or ossein is extracted from animal bones.
Like rind, it is an incomplete protein but, hydrated with
four parts of water, is used to replace a similar weight of
proper meat, yet another disguise to the true meat con-
tent of the product.
Urea , a natural nitrogenous waste product found in
the urine of animals and man, can also be manufactured
from ammonia and carbon dioxide by heating under
pressure. It has no nutritional value at all and is normally
used as a fertiliser and animal feed additive. Very soluble
in water, its presence in a meat product for human con-
sumption adds nitrogen and thereby increases the 'pro-
tein' calculation.
Dried blood and plasma are normally used for animal
feed, pet food or fertiliser or are discharged as effluent,
only a small amount being consumed as black puddings.
There can be no objection to the proper inclusion, after
suitable treatment, of sterile blood and plasma in meat
products, provided their presence is declared and they
are not used in lieu of real meat. Rehydrated with water,
blood and plasma have the effect of disguising the true
meat content for the food analyst.
Wat e r is a natural constituent of meat, varying in
amount according to its age, method of handling, spe-
cies, form of refrigeration, environmental factors, etc. In
today's technology of curing, more pickle than is neces-
sary to effect a proper cure is used. Increased water
uptake of meat has been shown to be a property of the
myofibrils (which are involved in muscle contraction),
which make up about 70% of lean meat. In addition to
excess cure, polyphosphate is also added to the curing
solution and ensures that only minimal water loss occurs
at the cooking stage. Tumbling or massaging of the cured

The chief substitutions of inferior flesh for that which
is more highly valued are those of horse for beef, goat for
lamb, cat for rabbit and, previously, rabbit for poultry.
Another form is the replacement of steer and heifer meat
of high quality with lower-quality cow and bull beef. The
use of C. bovis -infected meat which has been refrigerated
to replace Grade A heifer and steer beef is not unknown,
and the perennial use of the word 'lamb, when in fact
mutton is being sold, is yet another form of substitution
and deception.
In recent times, kangaroo meat has been imported
from Australia into Britain and the United States and has
been used in the United Kingdom in the manufacture of
meat pies, pasties and beef burgers, on occasions along
with the inclusion of condemned meat.
While substitution can, and does, occur at the carcase
and meat cut stage, it is when meat is in a comminuted
form that adulteration most often takes place. Using
modern technology, production techniques are used to
create debasement at a very sophisticated level. This
pernicious practice creates great problems for the food
analyst and enforcement agencies, besides being a health
threat for the consuming public.
That it is not a new practice is illustrated by the intro-
duction to a standard text on food law, Bell and O'Keefe's
Sale of Food and Drugs , which states, 'The act of debasing
a food or drug with the object of passing it off as genuine,
of the substitution of an inferior article for a superior one
to the detriment of the purchaser, whether done in fraud
or negligence, appears to be as old as trade.
The high price of meat, the wide range of proteins of
an inferior nature which can be used, the processed form
of the product, the analytical difficulties presented and
the economic considerations all appeal to the unscrupu-
lous manufacturer.

Ingredients used
Many different types of non-meat proteins and animal-
based proteins are used in an attempt to disguise the true
meat content on analysis. These ingredients are often
referred to in the trade as 'meat extenders' or 'meat
substitutes, which can, of course, be used legitimately.
It is their illegal use which results in fraud.
Non-meat proteins include vegetable protein, for
example, soya bean, which can be given a 'texture' simu-
lating a meat appearance and cereal.
Cereal is an ingredient which is sometimes added to
'all-meat products' and has the ability to absorb water,
giving the product a drier appearance more like its
natural form, besides affecting the initial analytical
determination, depending on the type of cereal used.
The consumption of certain forms of cereal adversely
affects the health of persons suffering from coeliac