It’s amazing what innovations the Almighty Dollar will motivate. The Chinese department of industry and commerce has discovered an enzyme that turns pork into beef.
Why? Because beef is twice the price of pork in China. The transformation is rather profitable for restaurants.
After rumors of the additive spread around China, a reporter managed to get his hands on a bottle of it and decided to document its effect in a photo-report. He found the stuff really worked, in that after just 90 minutes of pouring it over a piece of pork, it already looked and smelled like cooked beef. The meat changes color and becomes darker, and the reporter claims there’s no sensible difference between real beef and the counterfeited version.
While it does put money in the pockets of restaurant owners, doctors say long-term use of additives has serious consequences including deformities and cancer.
It doesn’t take a doctor to figure that the health risks of something like this might not be worth it. I hope the product does not begin to compromise the health of consumers, and that it never makes its way to the US.
This is not the first time we’ve tried to imitate meat. Check out this, from 1931:
Ah, MSG.
SheWalksSoftly 