Did you know that the USDA meat grading is strictly voluntary and that the plants have to pay for grading? USDA grades for beef include Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, and Canner while for Chicken, Turkey, Duck, and other inspected game birds can be graded as A through F. You are only ever likely to see Prime, Choice, Select, or Standard beef and you are only ever likely to see grade A fowl in the supermarket. Still, have you ever wondered why you just never see USDA graded pork? Like any kind of USDA grade for pork? The USDA does not grade pork the way they do beef or fowl. They have exactly two grades for pork meat, “Acceptable” and “Utility,” and those grades are entirely accurate. The USDA cannot give pork an A or B grade like with fowl, nor can they grade pork Prime, Choice, Select, or even Standard — nothing above “Acceptable” — like they can with beef. The reason is because swine flesh is loaded with bacteria, parasites, and toxins. When a pig is butchered, worms and insects take to its flesh sooner and faster than to other animal’s flesh. From the time of slaughter, exactly nothing is done to sterilize or purify pork meat in any way. While they won’t give pigs standard grades, the USDA does provide pamphlets that advise consumers to fully cook all pork products to avoid getting sick or hosting a parasite. On average, supermarket pork has over a dozen parasites. A high school kid posted a video where he faked a few pork chops taking the “Pepsi Challenge” that gives birth to parasitic worms. While this is funny, and staged the fact is that if you marinate raw pork in a slightly acidic sugary liquid, you can often culture live parasites. There is no safe temperature at which pork can be cooked to ensure that all these parasites, their cysts, and all the eggs will be killed off. In addition, microwave ovens heat unevenly, practically ensuring that some of those varmints will survive the heating process.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 20:05:59 +0000
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