You may remember a diary I wrote last month. Its title was
"Only a Fool Would Eat Meat from Wal-Mart" and it made the rec. list here at Kos. A few days before, a Michigan company had sued the FDA to ban a process that allows meatpackers to inject case-ready meat with carbon monoxide to keep the product looking fresh even if it isn't. This led me to feed the search "Wal-Mart meat carbon monoxide" into Google news and I noticed that Wal-Mart was all over the map in their response to reporters who called them and asked if meat treated this way was sold in their stores.
Well, I just did the same search again, and noticed something newsworthy. Wal-Mart caved! This is from a Chicago outfit called eTruth. It's important to note that it's from two days ago:
Wal-Mart chose to stop selling the treated meats in the last few weeks, according to Karen Burk, Wal-Mart spokeswoman. "Customers were telling us they preferred other products," she said.
In other words, just after the controversy over carbon monoxide broke, Wal-Mart caved. And this time the Wal-flacks have their stories straight. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on March 1st:
Wal-Mart used to carry some lamb and veal cuts packaged with CO but has recently discontinued that line, reports senior director of corporate communications Gail Lavielle.
Obviously this needs to be checked out because like their decision to end food donations, because Wal-Mart can't be trusted and they never put out a statement when they switched. [Gee, wonder why?] And while I applaud their decision, you have to note that Wal-Mart only ever does what's right under pressure from somewhere.
However, much to my surprise, I need to report that Target is now behind Wal-Mart on this issue. Here's the Star-Telegram:
Target, on the other hand, ducked the question with a generic statement that "we have high food-quality standards in place, and we follow all regulations and requirements" of the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
eTruth explains why:
Target, which sells groceries at its Mishawaka location, is standing behind carbon monoxide packaging.
All the non-deli meats sold at the Mishawaka store are prepackaged and the process of treating them with carbon monoxide "has been used safely and effectively for years," said Target spokeswoman Aimee Sands. "Meat packaged in this matter is manufactured in USDA-inspected facilities, and offers additional benefits, such as tamper-evident, leak-proof seals."
Let's see what Target's customers think. I don't have a Target w/ a grocery store in my neck of the woods, so I don't know if all their meat is case-ready like at Wal-Mart. However, I do know that there is no labeling requirement for carbon monoxide on a package. Therefore, customers have no idea whether their meat is fresh before they buy it or if the CO is just making it seem that way. Therefore, only a fool would buy meat from Target.
JR