Dancing steaks!

Watch this Web video before your next shopping trip

By Kim Carlson

April 3, 2007

Food and Water Watch has released “Just Say No! to Mono Meat,” a Web-based animated short about the questionable practice of using carbon monoxide to keep packaged meat looking red and fresh — even meat that’s weeks old.

Meat, for those of you who don’t know, generally turns grayer the older it gets; in fact, you can see just this in a time-lapse video segment of “Just Say No!”

Thus, the consumer staring at a wall of plastic-covered packages at the market — that would be you — can judge how fresh the T-bones are by the color.

Or at least you could.

Since 2004, when the gas practice was approved, it’s become more difficult to tell what’s fresh in the meat section. One way to avoid confusion is to buy meat at a market that has a busy butcher counter. According to Food and Water Watch,

This type of packaging is commonly found in “case ready” products that arrive at the store already in their package, as opposed to meat that is packaged by store employees on-site.

One caveat: Although this video is only a few minutes long, you’ll want to watch it when you won’t be interrupted; there’s no obvious way to pause and start again.