Beef Jerky...what is really in it?

I admit that beef jerky is one of my favorite snacks, although I eat it quite sparingly now, after I found out some of the ingredients. I wasn't always such a health/nutrition nut. When I first started to pay attention to what I was eating and reading labels, I was fascinated by what is actually in some of the stuff we eat.

If you take the time to read the ingredients of what is actually in this stuff, in most lists you'll find two ingredients:

Sodium Hydroxide

Monosodium Glutamate

While somebody without a background in chemistry may not know exactly what these two ingredients are, here is the breakdown.

Sodium Hydroxide:

Also known as lye, flesh stripper, and caustic soda. It was a common additive to soap for many years, until researchers discovered its potential damage to human skin. It has similar properties to battery acid, registering in at a whopping 13(out of 14) on the pH scale. It is sometimes used as a cleaning product. Morticians use it to strip flesh off of bone. It is also the main ingredient in chemical hair relaxer, which strips off the outer layer off the hair follicles to make tough hair easier to manage.

Monosodium Glutamate:


Also known as MSG for short. I remember always going out to get Chinese food when I was younger, and there would always be a big bright neon sign on the glass window, saying NO MSG or something similar. I always wondered what it stood for. Later on I discovered that it is a chemical additive that was used as a preservative in foods in the orient(as well as this country) for many years, until researchers directly linked its consumption to many cancers.

So what ever happened to MSG? Did it completely disappear off of the face of the Earth? Not quite. While its usage was dramatically reduced in the Chinese food trade, it is still a common ingredient in many packaged foods, particularly processed meats. It has not been banned by the FDA. The reason why it is still so commonly used as a preservative is because not only does it dramatically expand the estimated shelf life on many foods, but it is also very cheap to manufacture and export.

This is just a small sample of the many other horror stories I've heard about the processed meat industry, everything from rats and insects being included in canned meat to spoiled meat being treated with chemicals such as carbon monoxide and repackaged as fresh meat. Have we really progressed any farther than we were in the 1920s, when Upton Sinclaire wrote his book known as "The Jungle" about the cringeworthy practices of the processed meat business? I think not.