Most Poles cannot imagine a sandwich without cold cuts. The producers do not make our choice easier, the technology allows us to obtain 100 kg of ham from 190 kg of pork! In addition, according to the IJHARS inspection report from 2013, approximately 35 percent. controlled batches processed meat was incorrectly labeled in the last year. As it turns out, producers don’t like to admit it either for adding certain food additives to cured meat, e.g. carrageenan, monosodium glutamate and MOM, i.e. mechanically separated meat, called fatty meat mass. The nutritionist Karolina Łąkowska wrote in detail about MOM. What to do in order not to come across a poor-quality product or, worse, not to poison yourself?
1. The amount of meat in the meat
The meat content in the composition should be the first thing we pay attention to. Of course, the bigger the better. Avoid products marked as ‘high-performance’ from a distance. Really good hams have around 95% meat in their composition.
At the same time, it is worth checking the protein content in the product – it should be at least 16g per 100g. However, you need to pay attention to whether it comes from meat or plant additives.
2. Other ingredients
Another rule applies to additives – the less of them, the better. How do the producers combine? The ham is sprinkled with water to increase its weight and of course earn more from it. The water itself, however, would quickly ‘run away’. Therefore, the composition also includes phosphates (E450-E452) that hinder the absorption of calcium, carrageenans that can cause flatulence and intestinal ulceration, and fibers that significantly increase the ability to bind water – soybean, wheat, etc. This mixture with water is called ‘glue’ or ‘sponge ‘. After cutting our pierced sausage, water spills out and needle marks remain. Manufacturers often add starch to the product to limit this leakage.
We all realize that it is difficult to produce cold cuts without additives on a massive scale, the most important thing is the microbiological quality, and this is beyond any doubt. After all, it will be transported, stored, etc. Small butchers can of course offer traditional ham.
– adds a factory worker.
However, keep in mind that adding reasonable amounts of salt water (10%) to the brewed ham is allowed and beneficial. During the production process (smoking, baking, steaming) the water evaporates from the meat anyway.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems is still exceeding the standards for preservatives. So let’s try to choose ham with a minimum amount of additives, despite the understanding of mass processing with a large amount of meat.
3. All that glitters is not gold
Shiny, uniform slices – this is not what we are looking for. The ham should have a visible meat structure and even strands of fat and fibers that are obvious. It cannot be a homogeneous and too pink mass. Do not be fooled by treatments aimed at increasing credibility – e.g. tying with string or spraying the so-called ‘varnishes’ for a dark, smoked skin.
The name itself does not tell us much either. A ham can be called a product with a minimum amount of meat, which comes not only from pork or game (because they should be used to make a real ham), but also from chicken, turkey or beef.
4. Price
There is nothing to cheat, you cannot buy a good-quality ham for PLN 10. You have to think logically, how could this be possible when the raw material itself costs much more?
Note:
Watch out for the cold cuts behind the shop counters! A few years ago, there was a lot of publicity about the scandal in one of Warsaw’s shops about ‘refreshing’ old meats. The workers washed suspicious, sometimes moldy meats with a sponge and detergents, and then smeared the slices with oils, saying under their breaths: ‘People will eat anything like pigs’. There is no need to delude ourselves, this practice was not and probably is not an exception. So let’s carefully look at the cold cuts before buying and look for trusted producers.
The title photo is from: sk8geek / Foter / CC BY-SA
The second photo is from: jetalone / Foter / CC BY
The third photo is from: Kent Wang / Foter / CC BY-SA