10 Things Your Butcher Won't Tell You

By Jane Black


1. "I've never touched a bandsaw or even handled a side of beef." Being
a butcher is a lot different than it was 25 years ago. Back then
skilled meat cutters used their muscle to break down whole carcasses
and their know-how to ensure no scrap was wasted. Today butchers are
more often found behind the meat department counter at one of the large
grocery chains, where their skill set - and salary - has been
reduced to accommodate the demands of big business. Their main job now
is to cut up smaller pieces, known as primals, into individual
portions, as well as to shape and tie roasts, and to grind meat for
sale. The upshot: Many butchers don't know a whole lot about the meat
they're hawking - where it comes from or basic information about
varying cuts, preparation or cooking time.

So where do you go if you want to know how to butterfly a leg of lamb?
Look for an old-fashioned, owner-operated butcher shop, or visit an
upscale market, such as Whole Foods. Theo Weening, the chain's
mid-Atlantic regional meat coordinator, encourages untrained staff to
enter a two-year apprenticeship program, and each year meat department
personnel are taken on educational outings to organic ranches.

2. "No special orders." Many meat departments don't even have butchers
anymore. Thanks to an innovation known as "case-ready" meat, staff are
often little more than glorified stock handlers. Case-ready meat is
prepackaged in plants and delivered to vendors ready for sale. The
industry contends pre-preparation helps prevent contamination, enhance
quality control and lower prices. And while that may be true, it also
means less choice for consumers. Staff at chains that rely on
case-ready product are not trained to alter cuts. What you see is what
you get - you can't ask for a boneless rack of lamb, for example, or
an extra-large sirloin - and what's in stock is probably going to be
cut and sized based on what moves.

Among the monster chains, Wal-Mart has led the way - its supercenters
have carried only case-ready meat since 2001. Fortunately, not all
stores are on the case-ready bandwagon. High-end and specialty grocers
are the exception. At New York-based Dean & Deluca, for example,
breaking down a carcass is part of the job interview. "We have highly
skilled people because that's what our clients expect," says Bill
Lettier, vice president of retail operations. The bad news is, you can
expect to pay a premium for the privilege of choice.

3. "The real money's in prepared foods - marinades, kabobs...
ka-ching." "Don't take a butcher's advice on how to cook meat," Andy
Rooney once quipped. "If he knew, he'd be a chef." Perhaps. But more
and more butchers now spend as much time preparing meat as cutting it
- often at a premium. Wegmans, for example, offers marinated pork
tenderloins and chicken cutlets. On Aug. 28, the chain's Dulles, Va.,
store offered straight pork tenderloin for $5.29 a pound, while a
honey-mustard-marinated version of the same went for $6.99 a pound.
That's too much even for people who hate to cook, like Bonnie Cohen, an
international business consultant in Washington, D.C. "Even I, who am
both lazy and nondiscriminating, find the prepared kabobs and other
meats are a waste of money," she says.

But markups aren't always so obvious. At Whole Foods, for example,
oven-ready chicken and beef kabobs in various marinades or a New York
strip steak in a smoked chipotle sauce cost the same as nonmarinated
cuts, but a preshaped, seasoned ground meat patty can run 20 to 75%
more than the regular stuff. Prices vary widely by region and depending
on the cost of beef, so compare carefully.

4. "You thought fat was bad; wait'll you get a load of the salt
content." Americans' obsession with leaner meats has had an unwelcome
consequence: Cut out the fat and you cut out the flavor. "Choice" beef,
the grade most commonly found in supermarkets, has less marbling than
it did 30 years ago - a result of breeding initiated in the 1970s to
respond to health concerns over fatty meats. To counteract the lack of
flavor, most processors get around the problem by injecting beef, pork,
chicken and turkey with saline, which often reaches 15% or more of the
purchasing weight.

Meat processors argue customers want preseasoned foods, which taste
better and save cooking time. (These additives also add shelf life.)
Critics counter that so-called enhanced meats and poultry are mushy and
salty. And most customers are outraged when they realize what they're
getting: "I paid for one-quarter of a pound of salt water when I bought
a 2-pound pack of chicken breasts," seethed New Yorker Amanda Bernard.
But for many people, money is the least of it: Enhanced meat can be
risky for those who need to watch their salt intake. The good news is,
it's relatively easy to spot enhanced products, which are required to
carry an ingredients-and-nutrition label.

5. "You are what the animal eats." Americans are consuming more meat
than ever. In 2004 we ate over 221 pounds of meat and poultry per
person, up from 199 pounds in 1990. In order for the industry to turn a
profit on the low prices Americans have come to expect, most livestock
are kept and slaughtered on factory farms, where animals eat corn- and
soybean-based feed - 10 to 30% of which is often radically different
from what the animal would consume naturally. For example, feathers,
poultry manure and bedding are all acceptable in cattle feed, according
to the Food and Drug Administration. Poultry may also be fed meat and
bone meal ground down to an inexpensive, protein-rich powder that
encourages fast growth.

This practice can be dangerous to humans. According to Consumers Union,
between August 1997 and March 2004, 52 companies recalled products for
violating federal rules protecting feed from infectious "prions," the
proteins believed to cause mad-cow disease. Despite the recalls, the
FDA has failed to institute stricter rules.

6. "This beef's 'all natural' - whatever that means." Surely "all
natural" meat is a good option? Nope. According to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, the terms "natural" and "all natural" on a meat label
in no way reflect how the animal was raised or what it was fed;
"natural" means only that producers have introduced no colors or
additives to the meat after processing. Other labels are equally
misleading. To qualify as "free range," according to the USDA, chickens
must be given access to the outdoors only in the most technical sense:
The door to the pen must be open for specified periods each day.
Whether the birds actually go outside, and for how long, is irrelevant.
"If you want to pay twice as much for essentially the same product, go
right ahead," says Richard Lobb, spokesperson for the National Chicken
Council, which represents the largest chicken producers and processors.
"There really is no difference."

7. "It's not all that clean back here." Is your meat department
sanitary? Taking a look at store cleanliness may be the only way to
tell. Though inspection records are public information, SmartMoney had
to file a Freedom of Information request to review state reports. And
no wonder. According to the New York Department of Agriculture, 25.5%
of the state's supermarkets were cited in 2004 for a critical
deficiency involving insect, rodent, bird or vermin activity that could
have caused contamination, while 7.5% were cited for unsanitary
equipment services. Another 1% of stores were slapped on the wrist for
employees failing to wash their hands.

Your best option: Buy meat in stores where you believe sanitation is
taken seriously. Then develop a relationship with the butcher or meat
department personnel, and express any concerns.

8. "'Ground beef' is a euphemism." John Montana, a Boston executive, is
a gourmet cook, but sometimes he just wants a burger on the grill. When
the mood strikes, Montana doesn't buy any old ground beef. Instead, he
selects a raw cut and asks the butcher to grind it on the spot. "That
way, I know what I'm getting," he says. Excellent idea. Ground beef,
especially that found in processed foods such as sausage and pizza
toppings, is often extracted by a process called "advanced meat
recovery," where carcasses are fed to a machine that strips soft tissue
from bone. Consumer advocates warn that AMR increases the risk that
spinal tissue - which can carry mad-cow disease - could be included
among the processed meat. The American Meat Institute counters that the
spinal cord is removed from all carcasses before being stripped.
Meanwhile, the first case of mad-cow disease in domestic-raised beef
was discovered in Texas this June.

But that's not the only worry with ground beef. It's also a bacteria
magnet. During the grinding process and packaging, it's exposed to air
that is rife with harmful bugs including listeria, staphylococcus and
salmonella. It's so difficult to prevent infection that the USDA okays
ground beef with 7.5% incidence of salmonella bacteria, versus just 1%
for raw cuts. Most experts agree that's a reasonable level as long as
meat is cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, the
temperature at which most pathogens are destroyed. The problem is,
that's well beyond the popular medium rare.

Our best advice: Find a butcher with a dedicated grinder for beef
-you don't want any pork or chicken mixed in - and have your beef
ground at the store. Then cook your burgers thoroughly.

9. "These pork chops could come from anywhere." After Canada confirmed
cases of mad cow in 2003, consumers suddenly became interested in the
origin of their meat. But it's not often easy to tell. Meat from
Argentina, Australia and Canada, among other places, is available in
supermarkets, bearing a USDA stamp.

It's not only Canada that's of concern: In 2003 consumer-watchdog group
Public Citizen warned that many overseas inspection systems certified
by the USDA do not meet core requirements of U.S. law. Brazil and
Mexico, for example, violated U.S. rules that meat be inspected by
independent government officials, yet these countries have retained
their eligibility to export. The USDA's zero-tolerance policy for
contaminants including feces and urine was also repeatedly violated by
Australia, Canada and Mexico. USDA spokesperson Steven Cohen asserts
the system has been modified to spotlight higher-risk products. "We
have a very rigorous system of importation and certification," he says.
"We continually do audits to ensure that overseas food-safety systems
remain vigorous."

For now, the industry has defeated country-of-origin labeling. Your
best bet: Look for domestic meat, locally raised if possible.

10. "Tainted meat slips through the cracks all the time." In 2001
Barbara Kowalcyk's young son, Kevin, died after eating a burger she
prepared from meat infected with Escherichia coli. The strain that
killed Kevin was identical to the E. coli found in meat recalled that
summer by meat processor American Food Group. But Kowalcyk can't be
sure that's where it came from since recalls are voluntary.

How do you know if the meat you're buying is okay? Code numbers on
every package of beef sold can be cross-referenced online with those of
contaminated meat, posted at fsis.usda.gov. But few consumers are going
to hit the Internet every time they throw a steak on the grill. The
reality is that the system is imperfect, and tainted meat does slip
through the cracks. So far this year, there have been 24 recalls of
meat due to dangerous levels of pathogens, including listeria, E. coli
and spinal-column remains of a cow over 30 months old.

Your best bet is prevention. Freeze or refrigerate meat as soon as
possible after buying it, and thaw in the refrigerator, not on the
counter. Cook meat thoroughly; juices should be brown, not pink or red.
Place cooked meat on clean plates, and never reuse dishes that have
been in contact with raw meat. Finally, serve immediately, or keep meat
hot.
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Sheldon