How to Identify Water-Injected Pork? A Quick Guide to Telling Fresh Poultry and Livestock Meat

There are now many unscrupulous sellers who use water injection to increase the weight of the pork they sell and profit from it, which has left quite a few consumers deeply hurt. In response, the editor below will teach you how to identify water-injected pork and sow meat, and how to quickly tell the freshness of poultry and livestock meat? Consumers everywhere had better keep this handy!

1. How do you identify water-injected pork and sow meat?

Water-injected meat refers to meat from poultry and livestock into whose living bodies water was injected just before slaughter, or into whose carcasses and muscles water was injected during slaughter and processing. Water-injected meat not only harms consumers' economic interests, but also seriously affects the hygienic quality of the meat; it is an illegal practice. All water-injected meat, regardless of the quality of the water injected or what substances were added, is confiscated and treated as harmless. Here are several ways to identify water-injected meat by visual inspection: swelling and water pooling, congested fat, bruising, swelling, and dripping water.

1. Identification through the muscle: For any fresh or frozen meat that has been injected with water, when the meat is moved away from the spot where it was placed, the ground beneath appears especially damp, or even pooled with water, and when the meat is hung up it drips. Water-injected meat looks tender and swollen, with a moist surface; it lacks the bright red color and elasticity of normal pork, appearing pale red instead, with a shiny surface.

2. Identification through the subcutaneous fat and leaf fat: The subcutaneous fat and leaf fat of normal pork are white in texture, while those of water-injected meat are mildly congested and pink, and blood-tinged water flows from the small blood vessels on a fresh cut surface.

3. Identification through the heart: The coronary fat of a normal pig heart is white, while the coronary fat of a water-injected pig is congested, the coronary blood vessels are engorged, and sometimes an injection hole can be found at the apex of the heart; on a cut section of the heart, the myocardial fibers appear swollen, and water flows out when pressed.

4. Identification through the liver: After water is injected through the heart or the great arteries, the liver is severely congested and swollen, with thickened edges, appearing dark brown, and bright red water flows from the cut surface.

Identification of sow meat:

Generally, sow meat has a darker color, appearing deep red, with coarser muscle fibers and little fat interspersed among the muscle fibers; the skin is rather rough, loose, and lacking in elasticity, with many wrinkles and rather thick, with coarse pores, and the junction between skin and flesh is loose.

2. How do you judge the freshness of poultry and livestock meat through sensory inspection?

During storage, poultry and livestock meat may undergo autolysis or even spoilage, and during these changes, the breakdown of tissue components causes unacceptable changes in the meat's sensory properties, such as a strong sour odor, a foul smell, abnormal color, the formation of slime, and the disintegration of tissue structure (that is, discoloration, sliminess, and off-flavors). Therefore, people's senses of smell, sight, touch, and taste can be used to assess the hygienic quality of meat. Here is a brief introduction to several sensory standards for fresh meat:

1. The color of poultry and livestock meat: The muscle is glossy, uniformly red, and the fat is milky white.

2. The tissue state of poultry and livestock meat: The fibers are distinct and firm, and a dent made by pressing with a finger springs back immediately.

3. The stickiness of poultry and livestock meat: The surface is moist but not sticky to the touch.

4. The smell of poultry and livestock meat: It has the characteristic smell of fresh pork, with no off-odor.

5. The broth after boiling poultry and livestock meat: It is clear and transparent, with fat gathered on the surface.

3. What should you pay attention to when buying fresh pork?

1. Pay attention to whether the operator's status is legitimate; consumers should mainly check whether the unit or stall selling meat products has a business license and a hygiene permit.

2. Pay attention to whether the pork products have a qualification mark; mainly check whether the pork products sold have a hygiene inspection certificate and whether the surface of the meat bears a round veterinary inspection stamp.

3. Pay attention to the fact that some unscrupulous butchers intentionally skin sow meat and pass it off as skinless pork. Ways to identify sow meat: The surface striations of sow meat are rather coarse and dark red, the fatty meat has little fat, the ribs are more curved, the bones are especially thick, the skin surface is thick and yellow, and the pores are large and deep.

4. Pay attention to trying a simple method for judging pork quality: you can pull out one or several pig hairs and carefully look at their roots. If the hair roots are red, it may be diseased pork; if the hair roots are clean and white, then it is not from a diseased pig.

5. In particular, guard against deliberate disguise by butchers, and pay attention to buying whole rather than piecemeal. A small number of unscrupulous butchers, when selling diseased pork or sow meat, intentionally cut the whole pork carcass into odd pieces for sale, at a slightly cheaper price, while placing a piece of qualified pork bearing a round stamp nearby to deceive consumers.

So everyone must be careful when buying meat, so that you don't end up wasting your money and eating something that causes problems.