# Injecting meat with water **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960 "2003-08-27T13:16:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/1 "2003-08-27T13:16:54Z")
Quite a few meats are allegedly “injected with water” to increase their volume. The other day I got bacon and steak pieces from the same butcher. During cooking, both meats exuded a large amount of water that had to boil off before the meat actually started to sear in the pan. Is this technique actually real? If so, how is it done (and why doesn’t the water form pockets, rather than a uniform distribution)? ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/2 "2003-08-27T13:37:01Z")
I’m afraid I have no answers to how frequent, but I made the mistake of buying some meat at Wal-mart once, and upon inspection, the label said something to the effect of ‘this meat is injected with up to 8% water’. Going back to the same store, it seems most of their beef (and if I recall some of their pork) was the same way. Taking a guess, I would say it is done to make the meat look better and weigh more while maintaining the illusion of it selling for less (Wal-mart beef is much cheaper than the steaks at our farmer’s market). ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/3 "2003-08-27T13:39:46Z")
There was a TV investigation about this recently. The water has some proteins in it, derived from cows I think, that allows the water to remain in suspension with the fat in the meat. The meat is passed through a press with rows of hollow spikes and the water is literally blasted through the spikes into it. The point is to increase the weight. It’s also perfectly legal, as long as they mention it on the packaging. But then, the investigation discovered that the % of water quoted was usually under-estimated, sometimes blatently so. And then there’s the issue that what you thought was chicken has cow protein in it and is a mis-shappen flabby mush. And you wonder why people become vegetarian. ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/4 "2003-08-27T14:22:13Z")
The reason the water does not form pockets in the meat probably has something to do with osmosis, I would say. All internal animal and vegetable cellular walls are permeable to water. In a steak or a rasher, the cells of the meat are intact, whereas in a susage or other highly procesed meat product, the cells of the meat are bashed about so much that there are very few intact cells, surrounded by cell walls. So in the rasher or the steak, the water can be absorbed by each individual cell (which hasn’t been pierced by the injection needle) causing the intact cells to swell up. In a processed meat product water is generally added in conjunction with milk proteins, called whey. In either case, the addition of water is to pump up the meat and to charge you €15 a kilo (or whatever it is where you buy your meat) for water. It is a big fat swizz. If the animal was alive for the injection, the sodium pump (that isn’t its proper name - the Na/K osmotic balance regulation via transport of ions across the cell walls process wotsit) would regulate the influx of water and get rid of it into the blood stream. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/5 "2003-08-27T14:40:20Z")
They do it when the animal’s still alive? :eek: Or is that speculative? It is a bloody con. It’s con tastic. It’s con temtible. ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/6 "2003-08-27T14:55:07Z")
No, they don’t do it while the animal is still alive, as far as I know, because if they did the _alive_ animal’s cellular processes would expel the water, there would be no money to be made by doing that, so the injection process is post slaughter. I should have bolded the if at the beginning of the last paragraph. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/7 "2003-08-27T15:38:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Futile Gesture \* > \*\* > And you wonder why people become vegetarian. \*\* I wonder why people don’t go to a better source of meat. That rubbish is what one gets in “bargain” outlets like WalMart that cater to people who have less sense than teeth. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/8 "2003-08-27T16:11:32Z")
I got this from our very reputable local butcher’s. I was really pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/9 "2003-08-27T22:53:07Z")
You’d think a reputable butcher’s shop would have a [larding needle](http://allrecipes.iwon.com/encyc/terms/L/7196.asp). Or at least sell them. As long as they’re selling flabby meats. When I want bargain food, I get roach-coach tacos. At a reputable butcher’s, my standards are a bit higher. ---
**Author:** ![JMRossi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@JMRossi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMRossi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/injecting-meat-with-water/197960/10 "2003-08-28T02:53:38Z")
I once worked for a farmer in Missouri and before he had the herd slaughtered,the vet came in and injected them with something that he (the farmer)told me made them retain water so they weighted more during the slaughter. He also had two herds and two feed bins. He only ate from 1 of the herds,of course,the 1 that didn’t get all the shots.He never bought meat at a supermarket. He said,“I know how much they pay for it and there’s a reason they sell it for less”. We had one cow that had eye cancer,the whole right side of the head was one bleeding sore,covered with flies . The animal was in horrible pain,as the bellowing was constant . I asked him why we didn’t just shoot her to but her out of her misery.I will never forget his responce; “Oh.I’ll just get a little less when they slaughter it”. The morale of the story is -when you see meat on sale-beware.