Water, water, everywhere…..

How much in volume is a pound of water? About 16 ounces

Why should you care?? Let’s see.

Water is one of the most abundant things on earth, and easily sourced most everywhere. Other than in desert areas, hot or cold, it’s also one of the most obtainable, especially in an industrial scale. When you are talking about the cost of it per ounce even bottled water from Fiji is ridiculously cheap considering where it comes from. The stuff that comes out of an industrial-size tap is too cheap to even mention by the ounce. So again, why should you care, it’s a good thing, right? Except that, it’s being used to cheat the consumer on a mind-boggling scale. How so? Here we go…

Today I’m going to focus on meat, so all you vegetarians can tune out now. They are getting you too, but that’s for another day. I first picked up on this many years ago in a chain store known for lower prices, in Arkansas. A package of beef had caught my eye because it looked inexpensive compared to the same cut where I lived in California. So I looked a little closer, and there it was, a statement on the label that said, contains up to 7% of added water. I noticed similar notices on some packages of chicken. I thought about it and came to the realization that this being a state not known for individual wealth, this is how they kept buying meat for dinner an option for people who didn’t have a lot of money. Oh well, it wasn’t something I saw in my neighborhood market so I kinda forgot about it. And then, over the years it has crept into all the meat counters at home. At first, it was just chicken where I noticed it, and then slowly but relentlessly has been showing up in other meats. Ham, beef, you name it. It’s listed in the label, sometimes deceptively called “a solution” of something, expressed as a percentage. They even have an industry name for it, it’s called “Plumping” They sometimes claim it adds taste and blah blah blah, it’s good for you, ya know, call me skeptical but I’m thinking the real plumping is in the producer’s bottom line.

Some meat products don’t have a warning about added content, but, while I can’t prove it, I can see and even feel the added water as I work with a meal or cook things. Take raw pre-packaged bacon for example, something I’ve been handling since I was a kid, it all has all achieved a greasy, limp, and decidedly wet feel to it when you take it out of its packaging. For comparison, feel it along with deli counter bacon with its stiff, waxy feel. I know, it’s subjective, so what. It’s always been known for shrinkage when cooked, but now it practically does a disappearing act, leaving watery grease behind. Put it in a microwave to cook and you can watch the steam boil off.

The worst offenders so far are chicken products, fresh, frozen, whole bird or just parts, followed by processed ham, then beef.  Chicken, depending on its origin, seems to range from 3% to an astonishing 25% by weight of “a solution”, AKA, water, along with salt and other crud. And they still get to say it is all natural, because what could be more natural than water.

And to add insult to injury, even if you are ok with buying water at meat prices, you can’t even cook this stuff the way you want to, for example, in stir-frying. Why? Because you can’t stir fry water. Heat up a skillet, add a little oil, set the heat to high, and toss in the meat, and as soon as the chicken heats up out comes the water, and you’re boiling your dinner, like it or not.

A lot of cuts of beef are getting the same way, you can’t get a good sear, or caramelize it properly because as soon as it gets hot it’s sitting in a puddle of water that just oozes out as your dinner shrinks. And no, you can’t escape this by grilling, your $ 15-a-pound rib eye, or $ 10-a-pound flap meat, is still going to shrink when you toss it on, except the water will turn into vapor, unseen.

The ground stuff is even worse. I’m used to 70% lean ground beef losing about half its size as hamburgers on the grill, I know I bought a lot of fat with it, so I plan for it, but when 96% “lean ground sirloin” does the same thing we have a problem.

Today, when asked why I need 5 pounds of meat to make enough Italian beef for 4, all I can say is that it’s going to disappear when I cook it. And it isn’t just a few producers doing it, it’s everywhere. I’m going to attach some packaging pictures from various, but by no means all, sources available locally, to illustrate how widespread this is.

Wild Fork, for example, not to pick on them, but, is a somewhat upscale store featuring all frozen products that comes to mind. Chicken tenders, 15% “of a solution”, thighs, up to 20% water and salt, bacon wrapped beef tenderloin, 15% of water, and some blah blah,blah, and “beef type flavor”. This one really burns me, I mean, WTF, this is supposed to be upscale meat, why do they have to add beef flavor to it, what happened to the flavor it started out with? What kind of cows are out there that don’t taste like beef?

Cooks ham, butt portion, 23% water added. Seasoned Carne Asada (flap meat) up to 22% of “a solution.” In case you thought fish has been left out, I just saw a package of frozen Swai, a factory-farmed fish that is as hard to raise as goldfish, going for a sale price of $5 lb., the package said it contains a remarkable 30% of ”a solution”. I could go on. The point of all this is that even with prices going through the roof, they are selling it to you somehow packed full of water, one of the cheapest things on earth next to air, and charging you for it at the price of meat.

So let’s go back to the numbers. The Carne Asada was “on-sale” at $6 lb. It’s 22% water. You got 14.08 oz. of meat for your money, and 3.52 oz. of water, at meat pricing, so you paid $1.32 per pound, or .0825 per ounce for the water. According to the internet, .007 is what a consumer pays for a gallon of water in CA.  Divided by 128 ounces that’s about .0000547 per ounce. Times 3.52 ounces equals a water cost of .0001925 for the added water, the cost to a consumer if paid at retail for the water. You paid 1.32 a pound, divided by 16 is .0825 per ounce, times 3.52 equals .2904 for the water. There is no way the food processor is paying retail for water but we’ll go with this number. That translates to a whopping 150757.1% markup for the water, sweet. Think about this the next time you hear that they are adding all this water to better the consumer experience, for flavor, whatever the excuse. It’s a massive con, even if my math, not my strong suit, is off by a decimal point or two. Sure, it’s not It’s not a lot of money per transaction, but look at the big picture,

For example, an estimate from the internet gives me 15,000 metric tons of chicken eaten every year in the US. That’s 33,069,000 pounds. By the way, the chicken I mentioned is about $3.50 a pound, nowhere near the high price it can go for around here. I’ll average the water content to 20%. That’s 70 cents per pound for the water, and $2.82 for the meat. 33,069,000 pounds of chicken minus 20% for water is 6,613,800 pounds of water, or 105,820,800 ounces, or 826,725 gallons. Cost at retail, .007 x 826,725 = 5,787,075. Profit, .70 per pound sold is for the water, x 33,069,000 pounds, is 23,148,300 – retail cost is 5,787,075, net profit is $17,361,225. Not bad for selling water.

The actual numbers may vary, but nonetheless, the consumer is getting screwed big time for this, and the amount of water being sold at meat prices is going to keep going up until somebody screams, but in the meantime, apparently, since I’ve never seen any commentary on this, no one cares.

The receipts, by no means all, but you’ll get the point:

and yes, you can still find some without water added, but you’re gonna pay

I’m done,

Cheers, NADOA