Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2007

ACSH IN THE NEWS
Publication Date: November 13, 2007

A November 13, 2007 piece by Jeff Poor quoted ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava on a rather misleading CBS piece about carbon monoxide use in meat packaging:

CBS Early Show correspondent Chip Reid used hamburger meat dated Nov. 26, 2005, to suggest consumers could be hoodwinked by meat packagers that use carbon monoxide in what is known as modified atmosphere packaging (MAP-CO).

"This meat is almost two years old, and it’s still red,” Reid said on the November 13 show.

It wasn't clear where Reid obtained two-year-old hamburger meat, and he didn't bother to consider whether that was an abnormal situation. He also didn't explain that the use of carbon monoxide in packaging has health benefits...

According to Dr. Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health, the use of small amounts carbon monoxide in meat packaging offers at least one benefit.

"I believe that for bacteria -- that need oxygen to grow -- I think it would retard their growth," Kava told the Business & Media Institute on November 13. "So, that's a positive and I don't know of any real negatives."

"Everything has a, you know, a 'Use by' or a 'Sell by' date on it and if people pay attention to that, they know how fresh the product is," Kava added. "That's what I always look at when I go to the store."