Unless you’re buying an organic, free-range or local turkey this Thanksgiving, your bird may have ingested more liquids than your wine-swilling dinner guests.
Dow Jones is reporting that: ‘Butterball LLC, which sells about 12 million whole turkeys for Thanksgiving, injects its frozen whole turkeys with a solution to ‘keep the turkey moist and help prevent it from drying out during cooking, and for flavor,’ according to the company. Additives include salt, natural flavors, modified food starch and sodium phosphates.’
Injected, or pumped, meats can contain startling amounts of sodium — something most Americans consume too much of already (see Avoid Salt to Reduce Blood Pressure). Sodium phosphate is one of many additives used to keep meat tender and extend shelf life. A 4-ounce serving of a pumped round steak, for example, has 430 milligrams of sodium, or 19 percent of your recommended daily intake.
To learn more about modern meat packing, including injection and gas-packed meat, read Shocking News About Meat.