MESSING WITH MEAT
You probably aren’t aware of it, but the big meat conglomerates are now charging meat prices for water.
Up to 20% of the volume of your supermarket steak, pork chop, or drumstick is most likely H2O, plus a nice dose of salt and chemicals. These are being injected into the meats by industry, which even has a tasty-sounding term for the rip-off: “deep marination.”
Believe it or not, Cargill, Wal-Mart, and the other corporate purveyors of these adulterated meats say they are doing it as a favor to you, asserting that they are “flavoring” the meat! As a pork processor so insultingly put it: “This way we make sure consumers have a pleasurable eating experience, even if they do a poor job of cooking the meat.”
Well, golly, first of all, meat is supposed to have its own flavor – what happened to that? Second of all, there’s nothing pleasurable about learning that watered-down meat can cost more than … well, meat. Third of all, at a time when America’s doctors are calling on food processors to cut the salt they’ve been adding to our meals, the “deep marination” process can quadruple the amount of salt in poultry, beef, and pork.
Yes, says the industry, but, it’s all up to the consumer, for we label the product with such language as “boneless chicken breast with up to 20% of flavoring solution of water, spices, sugar, and phosphates.” But New York Times investigator Marian Burros found that this labeling is either in teensie type or doesn’t exist at all on the packages. Also, noting that today’s industrial meat doesn’t have much taste to begin with, Ms. Burros found the water-injected meats to be even more tasteless – unless you count the salt.
Visit your supermarket manager, and demand that your meat not be watered, salted, and chemicalized. Better yet, seek out local markets or meat producers who don’t have any injection needles laying around … and offer you real meat.
FROM WEALTH TO JAIL TO DIVORCE
Time for another peek into the “Lifestyles of the Rich … and Cranky.”
Even if you are rich, the old adage still applies: When you’re hot, you’re hot; when you’re not, you’re not. Dennis Kozlowski was hotter than high school love for a while. The CEO of Tyco International presided over a conglomerate and pocketed more than a quarter of a billion dollars in personal pay. He also got lucky in love.
Dennis, balding and pudgy, is a most unsightly man, but the glow of money and power can put a handsome sheen on anyone. While divorcing his first wife in 2001, he met Karen, a beautiful waitress at Ron’s Beach House in New Hampshire, and they were soon wed. A month later, the lovestruck Dennis threw an opulent 40th birthday party for Karen in Sardinia, Italy.
The party became a perfect snapshot of executive excess. It featured a bacchanalian feast, waiters dressed as Roman servants, and a now-infamous ice sculpture of Michelangelo’s nude statue of David – with vodka streaming from David’s … well, you know what. The infamous part of the party was not merely its raw tackiness but the fact that Dennis billed half of the bash’s $2 million tab to Tyco Inc.
This was hardly his only dip into the corporate till to finance his lavish lifestyle. Apartments, antiques, and even a $6,000 shower curtain were billed to Tyco. Also, he purchased a 15,000 square-foot waterfront mansion in Florida with a $30 million interest-free loan from corporate funds.
But Dennis got caught and is now doing eight to 25 years for corporate looting. During the trial, Karen loyally stood by her man. A year later, however, the bloom is off the rose, and Karen has filed for divorce. She also wants half of her husband’s assets, including half of that Florida mansion, and an undisclosed level of monthly alimony.
Everyone loves you when you’re hot – but not when you’re not.
This article appears in October 6 • 2006.