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Another Reason To Go Vegetarian

I’ve been an on-again off-again vegetarian for the last few years. It’s been hard to maintain my vegetarianism during my pregnancies - hence, the “off-again” part. But after reading the latest news on what the meat industry is doing, I’m seriously thinking of going vegetarian again.

For years, meat manufacturers have been injecting meat with carbon monoxide to give it a fresh, pink look. The CO2 binds with a pigment in the meat and keeps it nice and red. The process has been banned in many other countries including Europe, Canada and Japan. This week, Congress is debating whether it should be banned in the United States as well.

Uh, what? Gross! I didn’t know that meat packers were injecting our meat with carbon monoxide to make it look pink. (And by the way, meat turns brown from exposure to oxygen long before it goes bad - or at least, it should, if it’s not contaminated with carbon monoxide to make it look pink.)

This isn’t a brand new issue. In February of 2006, The Washington Post was writing about how consumer advocates have been pressuring for a ban on carbon-monoxide treated meat, accusing the FDA of allowing this practice without a formal safety evaluation. So far, no such ban has been implemented, and Congress is still deciding what to do.

So for now, chances are you’re going to get a little carbon monoxide with your Chicken Cacciatore. Yum.

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Posted in Government, Toxins and Chemicals, WTF? by Cristina on November 15, 2007
Comments (4)


  1. Izzy said:

    Congress is still deciding what to do? Oh, I feel SO much better knowing a bunch of crooked, lobbyist-loving, money-grubbing politicians get to decide if it’s right or wrong to inject my food with carbon monoxide.

  2. Kris said:

    Yuck, Gross! What is the problem? There’s just one thing to do-move to Europe.
    I mostly buy organic, local meat, but it gets too expensive some months.

  3. Rosie said:

    Pseudoscience alert!

    Listen, either the meat industry is injecting meat with CO2 or it’s injecting meat with carbon monoxide. Because carbon MONOxide only has ONE oxygen atom. Carbon monoxide is CO.

    CO2 is carbon DIoxide. You know, one carbon atom, two oxygen atoms? Hence the two at the end.

    The difference? CO is, while not technically a poison, a gas that, when breathed, the body mistakes for oxygen. CO2 is that stuff you produce naturally by breathing all the time.

    So which is it?

  4. Cristina said:

    It’s carbon monoxide. I guess the author of that article I quoted made an error by referring to carbon monoxide as CO2. Refer to the Washington Post article I linked to at the bottom for more info.



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