THE MEAT THAT WE EAT IN US

Written by BY MEHMET CALICIOGLU, PH.D.

We should encourage ourselves to buy and consume Halal meat. First, there is no guarantee that the regular meat comes from an animal slaughtered by a believer of the true God, even if your argument is "Muslims are allowed to eat meat slaughtered by the book of people"

1. We heard animals are stunned before slaughter. What is stunning anyway? Stunning is procedure to render food animals unconscious before slaughter using captive bold, electrical current, or carbon dioxide chambers, Stunned animals enter to a stage varying from coma to deep anesthesia depending on the method of stunning applied.

2. Is stunning mandatory in the US? Yes. Stunning is mandated by the "Humane Slaughter Act" (Code of Federal Register, 9) for all federal and state inspected commercial slaugh­terhouses. However, Halal and Kosher slaughters are exempt from this regulation.

3. Can animals die from stunning before slaughter?
On average, it takes approximately 3 minutes for cat­tle to die due to cardiac arrest or severe brain hemor­rhage. This time period is usually sufficient for slaughter (cutting the blood vessels). Animals are shackled, hoist­ed, and slaughtered within 15-20 second following stun­ning. Animals may die before slaughter, if stunning is inap­propriately done. However, these animals are detected dur­ing viscera inspection (presence of blood clots in the heart and large vessels) due to insufficient bleeding and removed from the food chain.

4. Is there any difference between stunned and not stunned animals relative to the amount of blood left in their bodies? There is no significant difference. Regardless of stunning, slaugh­ter cause increased stress to animal and increased blood pres­sure. This may result in rupture of capillary arteries and some small-blood collections so called "blood splash" may occur in the muscle. In fact, several reports indicated that incidence of blood splash in ritual slaughter (e.g., 3-10 %) was higher than in stunned animals (e.g., 0.5%).

5. If so, why the pre-packaged meat cuts in the market looks bloody appearance (bright red color, red fluid at the bottom of the package)?
This has nothing to do with blood. First, it is well documented that cherry-red color is the most desired aspect of meat to American consumers. Large vacuum packaged meat chunks so called "sub prime cuts" are cut into stakes on the back processing room of a food market, packaged, and incubated in an oxygen-rich cold room overnight. During this incubation, chemical state of myoglobin, a pigment substance in muscle cells similar to hemoglobin of blood, changes form methmyoglobin (brown-greenish color) to oxymyoglobin (cherry-red color) which the desired color. Second, the bloody looking fluid is not blood; if it was, it would form blood clot. This fluid is called "meat drip" or "meat juice". Muscle tissue has approximately 60-65% water. And majority of water is in the cells. After slaughter, animal carcass goes through a serious of metabolic changes during chilling (post-mortem changes) in which muscle tissue changes tomeat. As a result of these changes, and han­dling by people, muscle cells ruptures and intracellular water goes out and accumulates at the bottom of the package. Since myoglobin is a water-soluble compound, it also comes out with water resulting in a red blood looking fluid. You can observe the same thing when you thaw frozen meat, for example ground beef, in you microwave. During fast-thawing, more cells are ruptured and you may observe even more drip. This fluid is nutritiously very valu­able since it contains proteins.

6. Halal meat and meat products are not very commonly sold yet. Everything seems fine with meat from conventionally slaughtered (stunned) animals so far. Can Muslims buy meat from food markets?
This question requires expertise in fiqh and subject to reviews and discussions elsewhere. But it should be noted that there is no regula­tion in the US requiring that butchers who are making the first cut to be a believer of three major religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity). It is quite possible that the butcher can be an atheist, or a member of a religion that does not have a true God. It is clear that Muslims are not allowed to eat meat from an animal slaughtered by an atheist.

We should encourage ourselves to buy and con­sume Halal meat for two reasons. First, there is no guarantee that the regular meat comes from an animal slaughtered by a believer of the true God, even if your argument is "Muslims are allowed to eat meat slaughtered by the book of people". Second, Halal meat industry is a young industry that need a lot of support from its con­sumers (100% of them are Muslims) to survive and serve Muslims in the US.