The Beef With Wal-Mart Meats

This “beef” is also true at most stores.

To solve the problem for yourself—don’t “beef” about the problem, just don’t buy the beef from WM.  Support your local butcher shop.

I have encountered this in local butcher shops as well, but I still shop them often because of certain meat products. Especially bratwurst.

Carbon MONOXIDE?????  They put Carbon MONOXIDE in with the meat???  You mean the same gas that my car produces when it burns a fossil fuel????  That Carbon MONOXIDE??  You mean the gas that kills people when it leaks into their home from a defective fossil fuel burning appliance??  That Carbon MONOXIDE????

Or is it Carbon DIOXIDE???  That would be one of the gases we exhale when we breathe. 

Which one is it??  Facts please....

Michael D.,

It’s CARBON DIOXIDE, they just say CARBON MONOXIDE, because it sounds more sinister.  OXYGEN causes faster spoilage, CARBON DIOXIDE slows spoilage.

“same gas that my car produces when it burns a fossil fuel”

Hold the presses, you mean cars produce CARBON MONOXIDE, better ban cars immediately!!!

Anyone that buys anything perishable from Wal-Mart should have their head examined.

“...you mean cars produce CARBON MONOXIDE...”

Fire up that gas-guzzling SUV in your closed garage, Bob, and you can meet CO up close and personal!  :o)

Fire up that gas-guzzling SUV in your closed garage, Bob, and you can meet CO up close and personal!  :o)

I don’t want to attend the funeral. But I wanted to send a very nice e-comment note saying that I approved.
Mark Twain- stolen and updated.

SDV and Ken V.....

I, in fact, do have a large gas-guzzling SUV in my garage.

It’s a Chevrolet Suburban.  Made in the USA by union workers.  It’s parked right next to my Chrysler 300M, which is also Made in the USA by union workers.  I drive them to work at Wal-Mart.  Hmmm....how can we spin this one??

Hmmm....how can we spin this one??

Ummm...you’re a conundrum, Michael D?

Another dumb thread . . .
If Walmart doesn’t package the meat you like it, then don’t buy it there - it’s their loss, and the local butcher’s gain. Does this make WM bad, or just appealing to a less discriminating buyer who is willing to pay less for prepackaged beef??? This is business decision which doesn’t hurt anyone

and to imply that oxygen is the “gold standard” of how meat should be packed is just dumb - oxygen is probably the worst gas to package meat (or anything else in), because it oxidizes food. Why do we scrunch a half-opened bag of chips when we put it back in the cupboard?? To keep the oxygen out, because it will spoil faster in oxygen. Carbon dioxide would be a much better choice to pack meat in. I don’t know what to say about the whole “carbon monoxide” issue - seems like a typo or a scare tactic.

And who is this “senior in economics”?? a college student??? yeah, I trust his opinion on how to judge the quality and safety of meat . . .

If you’re going to attack walmart, do it with real issues, not silly stuff like this.

Rico Mas,

Right on, makes you wonder what they will come up with next, maybe, “Oxygen levels low in Wal-Mart stores from all the people breathing in it!!!”

As far as carbon monoxide is concerned, it is in the air you breath everyday, there are many gases in the air.

BTW, haven’t heard of many people dropping dead, from eating Wal-Mart meat, have you?

Once again this site erased my most intelligent post that was on for only a couple of hours.

However, Bob in once again you make your self appear to be foolish by your post of 03/06 @ 1:02 am in that you “state” it is carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide was used because of this site, etc.  YOU are wrong, it is carbon monoxide.  Go look it all up.

Not sure if this post will stay on or not so I won’t go into what else I had posted.  I don’t understand why this site at times does not want the truth posted.

The ever-pompous Rico Mas wrote:

If you’re going to attack walmart, do it with real issues, not silly stuff like this.

I must have been absent the day we covered this rule. There are as many ways to attack Wal-Mart as there are stars in the sky, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. I’ll not have you or anyone else limit my options.

I prefer industrialized packaging of meat. If you’ve ever been in a grocery meat room, you probably would become a vegetarian. I have heard horror stories of butchers urinating and defecating in ground chuck. Unwashed hands touching meat. Picking spilled beef up off the floor and packaging it for sale. Allowing crud and rodent feces to fall into the machinery (and the meat). And so on.

Which would you rather drink? Coca cola bottled by hand, after sitting in a huge vat in a room with 4 pissed off employees or a Coca Cola bottled on an industrial bottling machine?

Bad example, i know, but I use it to make you think.....

The gasses that WM’s meat is packed in don’t bother me nearly as much as all of the growth hormones and antibiotics that are given the cattle prior to being butchered, some only day’s prior to them being slaughtered.

Then to add insult to injury, they inject their meat with 8 to 12% saline solution (salt water) to add additional weight; this is theft, pure and simple. It would be no different than the butcher putting his thumb on the scale, or rigging his scales to weigh “heavy”. Theft is theft.

DAVE SMITH
PROUD UNION IRONWORKER

Ken V,
dude, you can attack WM on any issue you like -I’m not trying to stop you . . . my point is that issues like this don’t really help your side, because it’s not a matter of bad vs. good business. WM’s decision on how they want to package their meat is a minor technicality, that consumers are well aware of, and they base their decision on whether to buy it accordingly. It’s like selling Coke vs. Pepsi - a minor business decision based on the perceived target consumer.

No walmart employees are hurt by this
no consumers are hurt by this
no women were discrimiated against by this
no one did forced overtime because of this
no wages were lost because of this
no work was shifted overseas because of this.

When you pounce on insignificant stuff like this, it just makes your side look a little silly

IRONHEADED,

“Theft is theft.”

Unless it is done by some ‘poor’ person shoplifting, then it is okay and they should not be stopped.

IRONHEADED,

Sorry, the post should have read:

“Theft is theft.”

Unless it is done by some ‘poor’ person shoplifting, then it is okay and they should not be stopped, right? 

Besides, the “8 to 12% saline solution (salt water)”, is marked on the package, so the consumer can see what they are getting!!!

WM’s decision on how they want to package their meat is a minor technicality....

Normally, this would be true but since Wal-Mart’s original decision to go to pre-packaged meat was based on preventing butchers from unionizing, it takes on more significance.

Bob in

“Unless it is done by some ‘poor’ person shoplifting, then it is okay and they should not be stopped, right?”

No Boob, I mean held down and crushed, while slowly cooked, from the heat of the parking lot. Shoplifting does not justify beating the offender to death. Boob, in case you havent heard, shoplifting is NOT a CAPITOL crime, or at least not yet.

DAVE SMITH
PROUD UNION IRONWORKER

Ken V,

“Wal-Mart’s original decision to go to pre-packaged meat was based on preventing butchers from unionizing”

That is just your take on it, why then are a lot of other stores going to pre-packaged meat too?

IRONHEADED,

“No Boob, I mean held down and crushed, while slowly cooked, from the heat of the parking lot. Shoplifting does not justify beating the offender to death. Boob, in case you havent heard, shoplifting is NOT a CAPITOL crime, or at least not yet.”

This was an isolated case, it doesn’t happen everyday, besides, you need to take into account, that that person resisted violently.  By the way, “crushed, while slowly cooked”, might be somewhat of an exaggeration, don’t you think?

That is just your take on it....

I can only assume you are unfamiliar with the whole Texas meat cutter incident Perhaps after you’ve read up on it you might give us your “take”?

Sorry, bad link..just GoogleTexas WalMart meat cutters and see what you get.

OK, people...let’s clear something up here....

“Wal-Mart’s fresh beef, fresh pork, and fresh ground meat products that use MAP technology (modified atmospheric packaging) have a bleand of food grade pure oxygen (80%) and pure carbon Dioxide (20%) in the package.  There are no other gases involved.”

So, to those that say it is carbon MONoxide (including this website) you are WRONG!! 

To those of you that say it is carbon DIoxide, you are correct.  Thanks for posting the facts!!

Imagine that.  All of these people bitching because Wal-Mart suppliers package their meat products with oxygen and carbon dioxide, the two main gases we inhale and exhale.  WOW!!  That sounds dangerous!!

Please.

Ken V,

“you might give us your “take”?”

My “take” on this, is, if Wal-Mart used pre-packaged meat to keep the union out, explain to me why it is that our local Sam’s Club, still has meat cutters and a fresh meat department?  Are’t they owned by Wal-Mart and aren’t they afraid of the union coming in?

I’ll bet your “local Sam’s Club” isn’t in Texas.

Ken V,
I’ll accept your explanation of why it “takes on more significance”, but that was NOT the argument that was being made on this thread prior to my post. Not a single post had mentioned the impact of this policy on meatcutters. So there’s valid point to be argued under all this, but your side fails to find it until it’s dragged out of you.

Aren’t there meatcutters at the plant where the meat is packaged???

...there’s valid point to be argued under all this...

In reponse to your claim that “how they want to package their meat is a minor technicality” I merely pointed out that if Wal-Mart hadn’t gone to pre-packaged meat to avoid meat cutter unionization if the first place, we wouldn’t be discussing what gases are used to retard spoilage.

A small chciken coming home to roost, but a chicken none the less. Oh, wait! What gases are used to preserve poultry!!!  :o)

Ken V. you have ZERO proof that the case-ready meat was a tactic to avoid unionization.  You are LYING to the people that post and/or read this blog!!!!!

You are LYING to the people that post and/or read this blog!!!!!

Why, Michael D., whatever do you mean?

In February of 2000, a dozen meat cutters in the Jacksonville, Texas, Wal-Mart voted for representation by UFCW Local 540. By July of that year, the company had abruptly replaced fresh meat with pre-packaged products in all of its stores, neatly eliminating the need for skilled meat cutters and rendering the election moot. The company was reportedly proud of its novel “union avoidance strategy.”

Three years of legal battles finally produced a stunning win for the UFCW. In June 2003, an NLRB judge ordered Wal-Mart to restore the meat department to its prior structure, complete with meat-cutting, and to recognize and bargain with the union over the effects of any change to case-ready meat sales, for which purposes Local 540 will represent the workers.

Did your mother ever teach you it’s not nice to call people liars?  (especially if they’re not) :o)

Ken v>
how’s that going for you?  Is there a union in that store??  Where do we stand??  Post the whole story.  Until then, just keep lying away....