Meat Glue: Or how to make a filet mignon out of stew meat.

It has recently come to my attention that a substance called transglutaminase (i.e. meat glue) has been used in the food industry for many years in order to trick us into thinking the food we eat is of a better quality.

According to Wiki, meat glue "...is produced by Streptoverticillium mobaraense fermentation in commercial quantities or extracted from animal blood, and is used in a variety of processes, including the production of processed meat and fish products. It can be used as a binding agent to improve the texture of protein-rich foods such as surimi or ham." (Surimi is a fish used to make imitation crab meat. Suprise! There's animal blood extract in your crab!)

"Transglutaminase can be used in these applications:

* Improving texture of emulsified meat products, such as sausages and hot dogs.
* Binding different meat parts into a larger ones ("portion control"), such as in restructured steaks
* Improving the texture of low-grade meat such as so-called "PSE meat" (pale, soft, and exudative meat, whose characteristics are attributed to stress and a rapid postmortem pH decline)
* Making milk and yogurt creamier (seriously??? there's pig blood extract in my yogurt???)
* Making noodles firmer"

How to spot a meat-glued steak - this video is not for the faint of heart

Meat glue is banned in the EU, but in the US, the FDA classifies it under GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Transglutaminase is not required to be posted on the ingredients list.

So the next time I order a steak at a restaurant, I will raise holy hell if they are unable to tell me if my steak was made with meat glue. Then again, how can I truly believe them, if I don't see it with my own eyes? According to the video above, it is impossible to tell the difference between a cooked, meat-glued steak, and a cooked, non-meat-glued steak.

This is just ridiculous...