Fake beef is known to be harmful to humans. But to avoid buying fake beef, you must first understand the process of making fake beef. At present, the price of real beef in the market is about 50 yuan, and some cooked beef may reach the price of 70 or 80 yuan a catty. Due to the exorbitant price of beef, many consumers who prefer to eat beef are discouraged. It is precisely this point that the black-hearted merchants have grasped, and artificial fake beef has come into being.
When making artificial fake beef, black-hearted manufacturers choose to use cheap meat such as chicken and duck as raw materials. The price of chicken and duck meat is only seven or eight yuan a catty, which is almost seven or eight times lower than the price of real beef.
In addition, expired and spoiled beef is also an ingredient for making fake beef, which is no longer edible and therefore much cheaper than normal beef. Of course, artificial beef made from these raw materials cannot be sold directly, but needs to be processed with a large number of food additives.
After preparing the chicken, duck and spoiled beef, the blackheart maker will mix them together in a certain proportion, sprinkle them with beef essence, and then put them in a blender to break them up and mix well. The purpose of this step is to give the fake beef the chewiness and taste of beef to confuse the consumer's eyes and taste. The well-stirred fake beef turns into a mixed meat puree that resembles a mud, and the staff will add beef paste to the meat puree to add umami.
Of course, making fake beef is not only about the taste, but also about the color and appearance. The black-hearted maker compresses the minced beef sauce into chunks and cuts it by machine. Once done, they add cured red pigment and nitrite to color the fake beef, and finally smear the ox blood and wait for it to air dry before being bagged and sold.
This artificial fake beef costs less than half the cost of real beef, so it is very popular with a wide range of consumers. However, these beef contain a large number of food additives and chemicals, which are extremely harmful to the body and have no benefits at all.
In addition to artificial fake beef, there is also a type of buffalo meat. In order to make more money, black-hearted merchants will inject tap water into beef and then sell the tap water at the price of beef.
However, with so much fake beef on the market, how can we identify a real one? Artificial fake beef is rampant, and the disgusting technique of using rotten beef to smear cow blood is disgusting. In order to avoid falling into the trap of black-hearted merchants, we need to distinguish according to the four criteria of looking, smelling, asking, and cutting.
Hope is to judge the authenticity of beef by observing its color. The color of authentic beef is transparent and natural, with bright red and creamy or yellowish fat. The color of fake beef is unnatural, sometimes the color is dark red or even gray, and the fat is also dark, and the contrast between real and fake beef is obvious.
To smell is to smell the beef. Normal beef will give off a meaty smell or a slight smell of blood, while fake beef can smell weird or even have a smell that has never been smelled before. By smelling the smell, you can tell the difference between good and bad beef, real and fake, without touching beef.
Asking, refers to asking the shopkeeper rather than the lifeless beef. If the price of beef is lower than the market average, it is better to buy less. Because merchants rarely voluntarily lower their prices, let alone sell beef at a loss. Therefore, for beef with abnormal prices, it is best to buy less to avoid being deceived.
Cutting, is to feel the texture of the beef by touching it. Authentic beef has rough fibers and strong toughness. The compressed synthetic beef fiber is delicate and the toughness is obviously not as good as that of real beef.
As long as we master these four criteria, most of the fake beef on the market today cannot escape our eyes.