For the last decade or so, grocery stores have had sealed packages of fresh deli meat-I’m talking turkey, chicken, roast beef, not cured meats like pepperoni-that have expiration dates weeks or months in the future. Oscar Meyer Delifresh meats are an example. These weren’t around when I was a kid.
When one cooks meat at home, the FDA recommends only keeping it for around 4 days. One would assume it’s the same for turkey from a deli. If you wanted meat to last much longer it had to be frozen, canned or heavily cured with salt, nitrates etc. But these sealed packages of apparently fresh meats can last for months.
How are these meats preserved? Is it radiation? I recall reading a while back that irradiation was being explored as a way to sterilize foods without damaging them by canning (heating) or freezing. Or is it something else?
Bagged lettuce is packaged in nitrogen and keeps for a surprisingly long time. I’ve also heard that some meat packers use carbon MONOXIDE to keep their meat looking fresher, because that keeps it red. The amount used in a package would dissipate quickly after the package is opened and pose no danger.
Every step from cooking temperature into sealed and atmosphere controlled packaging happen with sterilized equipment in a clean facility as quickly as possible. So very little bacteria in an inhospitable environment, except for the delicious meat, but only some bacteria can live on meat alone.
When you see the term ‘packaged in a protective atmosphere’ on bagged salad, it often means sulphur dioxide. (my wife is severely allergic to SO2 and sulphites - I have to be extremely vigilant and look out for this innocent-sounding term in the fine print)
No.
That’s Hydrogen Sulphide.
Sulfur Dioxide is an extremely pungent, very toxic gas (it creates Sulphuric Acid in the lungs). I doubt that anyone is packaging anything in a SO2 atmosphere, unless it is very diluted with inert gases.
It’s a very widely used preservative, but it will be used in dilution, of course. if it was used at 100% concentration, it would probably damage things like salad leaves.