Health Canada reviewing process of how beef is tenderized
Posted October 21, 2012 1:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Public Health Agency has partnered with Health Canada on a mission to ensure the safety of Canadian beef.
They have started a review into how meat products are mechanically tenderized.
Dr. Gregory Taylor, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer, says the review could take up to four months and will focus on the risks that accompany tenderizing meat.
“Tenderizing is done, apparently, and again we need to figure this out, at various stages through production,” Taylor said.
“It’s sometimes done at the slaughterhouses, it’s done in restaurants, and people do it at their homes. We don’t know what the risk is for each of those processes, so we need to figure that out before we make recommendations,” he added.
The big concern for Dr. Taylor is rare, or medium rare, steaks, which if tenderized with a needle or blade, could become infected with bacteria from the outside.
If you’re unsure whether your meat was tenderized before you bought it, Dr. Taylor says you can ask at the store where you purchased it.
