What’s with the ‘diapers’ in meat packaging? Obviously, they soak up the blood. But do they serve any other function?
Well, just yesterday, I decided I wanted some pork chops. I happened to have some in the freezer. I bought these a bit over a year ago; they’ve been in the freezer for that period of time.
Naturally, there were some problems with the chops. A couple were freezer burnt and probably wouldn’t have tasted very good; those got trashed. All four were also stuck together; I needed application of hot water to get them apart.
But none of that is relevant to your question. This is: The parts of pork chops that were resting on that “diaper” were very easy to peel off. The parts that were not, and were rather resting on styrofoam, managed to freeze pretty well to the foam. Took me a bit of time to peel the non-diapered portions of the meat from the little foam plate. So, they’re definitely a help when you just pop the whole package in the freezer and forget about it for a year.
Well, I’ll try anything but … Oh, I see, you mean diapers for meat.
Thank heavens. I’m not the only one who totally mis-interpreted the thread title.
I find cube steak to be particularly comfortable and absorbent.
While hamburger is right out.
Diapers are not only to soak up the blood of meats, but they are also used in fresh cut fruit packs which have watermelon, which “bleeds” a lot more than other cut fruits.
Throw in obligatory “milk bone underwear” statement here.
To me, they’re more like tampons than diapers.
I wondered if it was intended as a counterpart to the bacon bra (just Google it – pictures probably NSFW).
I would have thought… you know… plain old sanitary pads would be the best approximation?
So…
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They control leakage
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They keep meat from sticking to the foam plate if you forget it in your freezer for a year or more.
That it?
In the olden days if meat was so poorly drained that a lot of water/blood drained into the package it was immediately obvious because it sloshed about on the plastic foam. Buyers didn’t like this – it looked bad, if nothing else.
Now with the ‘diapers’ those drippings are nicely contained, and thus the buyer gets to pay steak per pound price for soggy paper (profit!) which will, of course, be thrown out.
FTR that’s usually illegal. If they are wrapping everything up and then weighing it they should set a tare on the scale. That is, figure out how much the all the packaging weighs and punch that into the scale so it automatically subtracts that from the weight of the package. If you’re really concerned about that usually your local health department or dept of weights and measures is interested in that kind of thing.
At least that how it is in my town. And our health insepctor DOES check this from time to time by putting something from our store onto the scale and making sure the package weighs more then what it says on the label (since we can’t count the weight of the packaging).
Oh, one more small nitpick. You’re not paying steak price per pound for soggy paper, you’re only paying for the paper since the soggy is part of the steak, it may have leached out, but it’s still part of the food.
Sorry, but the last sentence makes no sense. If it’s leached out, it’s not part of the food any more.
And it was exactly the ‘soggy’ that I was complaining about. Yes, they don’t count the weight of the DRY paper and plastic tray. But nowadays there is way more blood/liquid leaching out of the meat than used to after it was packaged. It used to be that the foam tray would have a thin coat of ooze when you took the meat out, and no absorbent pads. Now you get those pads, almost always soaked. You could wring at least a quarter cup of ooze out of those pads.
There’s been some change in how meats are processed/how long they hang to drain/whatever. Maybe it’s as simple as the meat being cut and packaged at the remote processing plant versus extra draining time while the larger chunks are shipped to the local store for final cutting and packaging. Which is why they now have to use the pad when before they didn’t. The consumer is paying for the ooze at meat prices when before they didn’t.
It may be related to the way whole chickens are now labeled with ‘can contain up to 10% additional water by weight’ from processing. :rolleyes:
Neither of these add much to what the individual purchaser pays – an extra ounce or two of weight they get charged for, but adds up to a nice little bonus for the store.
Apparently these pads can also include additives to help preserve the meat. Here’s a link to some info, including this tidbit:
"A new addition to the range of antimicrobial agents is a blend of citric acid and sorbic acid in a2 to 1 ratio. The mix has been approved for use in reducing the microbial load of purge trapped inside soaker pads in packages of raw whole muscle cuts of meat and poultry.It may be incorporated into soaker pads at a level not to exceed 1 to 3 grams per pad. "
Is that blood in the packaged meats?
Go ahead and laugh, but me thinks not. Maybe a trace, but I always thought it was moslty fluid and myoglobin (?) which gives the red meats the dark red color.
Yes, but what kind of fluid? Or do you mean, just water?
This is correct. There is almost no blood at all, the color is from myoglobin. Muscle is made up of mostly water so that also accounts for some fluid.
Yeah, I always think of them as “meat maxi pads”.
Annoying? Not really. That much (many?) fewer ‘drippings’ I have to deal with!
But it WAS part of the meat when it was packaged and weighed. It’s not that they packaged the meat and then added juice to bring up the weight.