Juicy debate: What is fresh meat's true color?

WASHINGTON - Americans prefer their steaks red, which is why Minnesota food leaders Hormel and Cargill package a line of their store-ready meats with nontoxic levels of carbon monoxide.

While preserving sales along with the meat's bright pink hue, the practice is coming under fire from a rival business and consumer groups.

The CEOs of Hormel and Cargill, who testified in Congress on Tuesday, say there's no public health risk, a conclusion which gets significant backing from the scientific community and the government, which has approved the practice.

But in political terms, this is a battle between industry rivals that have each recruited their state's congressional delegation to help advance their cause.

On one side are Hormel and Cargill, who have turned to Minnesota Democrats Collin Peterson, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and Tim Walz, whose district includes Hormel's Austin, Minn., headquarters.

On the other side are Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak, both Democrats from Michigan, the home base of Kalsec Foods, a rival company that is marketing a patented rosemary extract that keeps red meat from turning brown on the grocery store shelf.

Kalsec, of Kalamazoo, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban carbon-monoxide-packaged meats, or at least require them to be labeled as such. They've had some success in convincing a number of national retail chains, including Minnesota-based Target, to seek government permission to label meats packaged with carbon monoxide.

"They're trying to force these companies, almost through intimidation, not to use this stuff," Peterson said.

No market for purple meat

Stupak, chairing a subcommittee on oversight and investigations, played a starring role Tuesday, interrogating Hormel CEO Jeffrey Ettinger and Cargill CEO Gregory Page, who sat at a witness table lined with year-old -- but still pink -- meat packages provided by committee staffers.

"To put it bluntly," Stupak said, "the sole purpose of carbon monoxide packaging is to fool consumers into believing that the meat and fish they buy is fresh, no matter how old it is and no matter how decayed it might be."

Stupak's barrage was reinforced by testimony from two consumer advocacy groups, Food and Water Watch and Safe Tables Our Priority.

Food and Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter cited industry estimates of billion-dollar losses each year from discolored meats. "That's what this is all about," she said. "At worst, it's dangerous, and at best, it's a consumer rip-off."

The two Minnesota food companies, which pioneered the packaging technology several years ago through a joint venture, say it is neither dangerous nor deceptive.

Page called it "one of the most important food-safety innovations ever."

The carbon monoxide, he said, merely replaces oxygen in sealed "modified atmosphere" packages that can be delivered directly to grocery cases, preserving freshness and minimizing contamination.

Rather than coloring meat, as rosemary does, advocates say carbon monoxide merely preserves the meat's redness.

Without it, Ettinger said, "the product that we would put into the retail case would be purple, and the consumer doesn't want to buy purple meat."

Dates, not color, counts

Hormel and Cargill have offered to address consumer concerns with a label warning that "color is not an accurate indicator of freshness" and urging customers to follow the "use or freeze by" dates, which are required on all carbon-monoxide-packaged meat.

Hormel and Cargill have so far resisted identifying their products with a gas more commonly associated with auto emissions.

"I don't think people want to be distracted by information that's not helpful to their purchasing decision," Page said.

The Minnesota companies' system has won the endorsement of scientists across the nation, including Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

In a letter last week to the director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Osterholm dismissed Kalsec's complaint as "a waste of our time... [and] a scare campaign."

A Washington lobbyist for Kalsec said Tuesday that the company had no comment on the matter. The company also declined to appear last week in a hearing held by Peterson.

But Peterson and Walz, who have vowed to bring Stupak's labeling legislation before their committee again, expressed skepticism because the complaints about the carbon monoxide process were championed first by Kalsec, rather than any consumer groups.

"That just raises a lot of red flags for me," Walz said.

Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753

Kevin Diaz • kdiaz@startribune.com