In reading about how bad "processed’ meats can be for you with all the preservatives - nitrates- and colorings and chemicals, etc. to be found in packaged lunchmeat-type products, I began to wonder about other ways to buy sandwich meats.
As a single guy who cooks little, I eat a lot of sandwiches and I like smoked ham and turkey primarily. The question is, would buying hand sliced ham or turkey from the supermarket deli counter contain less of these potentially harmful ingredients - or are they also infused with these substances ?
My grocery does make their own ham and roast turkey (and it’s usually less expensive than the premium brands like Dietz and Watson, and the ham is often cheaper than the low price brands), but that’s kind of their thing, as they’re an Eastern European deli. The ham is going to be treated pretty much like any other ham, with the appropriate nitrites/nitrates and cured similarly, but the turkey is just roast turkey, so it should be less chemically than the deli turkey. It also has a very different texture. It doesn’t have that slick “deli meat” texture, but rather the texture of, well, roast meat that has just been sliced. Also, the shape isn’t uniform, of course, since it’s coming off a whole piece of turkey breast.
Also, most cured meat won’t taste or look right without the nitrites. It’s pretty integral to the cured meat flavor and color.
And don’t let the “uncured” versions fool you; they use stuff like celery juice, which is very high in natural nitrite compounds and can be an even larger source of nitrites than just adding them in a known , measured quantity.
The reports about processed meats that I’ve seen haven’t been totally clear about the particular causes of related health issues. Some delis will offer fresh cooked roast beef and turkey that could be totally free of additives, even including salt. Cured hams need no preservatives if they are dry enough, but that’s not what’s typically found at delis. Nitrites and nitrates, and other preservatives and dyes seem to be a problem but the level of those varies a lot in sliced deli foods. I’m guessing that meats like turkey, roast beef, and pork would have the least amount of preservatives in them, I’m not sure how much more than salt is added to deli slicing hams. Cured salamis may not have many preservatives, but not all salami preparations using traditional names are actually cured with bacterial action and may contain a lot of preservatives.
For a lot of people it’s not that big of an issue because processed meats are not a big part of their diet. I can understand the concern though for someone who would be eating a sizeable portion of processed meats on a daily basis. Consider on top of that how many preservatives and additives that may be found in other foods.
As mentioned above, it just depends on what brand you get. If the meat isn’t prepared at the deli then it should be packaged with the list of ingredients, although some foods may be covered by a known set of ingredients, I’m not sure how that works anymore.
As already said, just buying prepared cold cuts from a deli is no guarantee of anything as it’s often the same stuff you can buy packaged, whether pre-sliced or in bulk. But delis may well carry nitrate-free meats that are marked as such. There’s an upscale deli near my place that does, but I don’t know how common that is. I don’t usually buy cold cuts and that’s about the only place I ever get them. They’re always very fresh, delicious, but don’t last long. One of my favorites is a basil and sundried tomato smoked turkey that I can push for maybe four or five days at most in a cold fridge. They’re also the only place I know where you can get sliced or shaved roast beef that is really rare (as in, medium-rare red) so they probably make that themselves – it barely keeps more than a day or two.
The other point to keep in mind is that while the (moderately) elevated health risks of processed meats are fairly well confirmed, I don’t think the reasons really are. It may not necessarily be the preservatives, or it may be other things in addition.
Yeah, that “uncured” or “no nitrites added” bullshit bugs the crap out of me. If it’s got celery juice, it’s got the nitrites used for curing. Now, curing can be done only with salt, but the “uncured” label is obviously trying to suggest to unwary consumers that the stuff isn’t loaded with nitrites/nitrate preservatives, when it is, just in a different form. See here for more info.