분쇄육, 햄버거, 패티, 선진회수육(AMR)은 식품안전에서 굉장히 중요한 부분을 차지합니다. 이들 쇠고기 제품은 광우병 위험 뿐만 아니라 병원성 대장균(E. coli O157:H7)에 의한 식중독 사고의 원인으로 악명이 높습니다.
미 농무부 홈페이지를 보니 분쇄육(ground beef)에는 쇠고기 지방을 첨가할 수 없고, 햄버거에는 첨가할 수 있는 것으로 나오네요. 그런데 햄버거나 분쇄육 둘 다 지방의 최대 함량은 30%를 초과할 수 없다고 하구요… 그리고 햄버거나 분쇄육에는 조미료(seasoning)를 사용할 수 있으나 물, 인, 희석제, 접합제는 첨가할 수 없다고 합니다.
Beef fat may be added to “hamburger,” but not “ground beef.” A maximum of 30% fat is allowed in either hamburger or ground beef. Both hamburger and ground beef can have seasonings, but no water, phosphates, extenders, or binders added. The labeling of meat food products must comply with the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the meat inspection regulations and labeling policies.
(출처 : http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fact_sheets/Ground_Beef_and_Food_Safety/index.asp)
분쇄육과 패티의 구성성분에는 식도살, 머리살, 볼살, 선진회수육(AMR)으로 얻은 고기, 저온에서 렌더링한 연하고 정교하게 결을 낸 고기(LFTB), 부분적으로 지방을 제거한 다진 쇠고기, 부분적으로 지방을 제거한 쇠고기 지방조직, 그리고 심장살을 제외한다고 정의되어 있습니다.
Raw ground beef and patty components other than beef manufacturing trimmings include raw esophagus (weasand) meat, head meat, cheek meat, beef from Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR) systems, low temperature rendered lean finely textured beef (LFTB), partially defatted chopped beef, partially defatted beef fatty tissue, and heart meat.
(출처 : http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISDirectives/10010.1Rev2.pdf , p7)
선진육회수(Advanced Meat Recovery)는 기계적 장치를 이용하여 고압으로 소의 뼈에 붙어 있는 질긴 지방조직 및 근막조직을 포함한 질이 낮은 고기를 뜯어내는 작업을 말합니다. 선진회수육이라는 용어에는 뼈를 뿌러뜨리지 않고 고기를 뜯어내는 새로운 방법이라는 의미가 포함되어 있으므로 선진회수육(AMR)에는 칼슘 성분이 100g당 150mg 이상(허용범위 30mg) 포함해서는 안 됩니다. 칼슘 성분이 규정보다 더 많이 포함된 경우는 기계적 분리육(mechanically-separated meat)이라고 표시해야 합니다.
출처 : BBC Thursday, 9 August, 2001, 16:03 GMT 17:03 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1482140.stm
But as investigations continue into how potentially contaminated produce entered the food chain, so-called ‘mechanically recovered meat’ (MRM) is believed to carry the most risk of being infected.
Humans are thought to develop the fatal brain disease variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease after eating meat from cows infected with BSE.
 It is being used because it is so blinking cheap  |
David Walker Trading standards officer |
Consumers are widely believed to have eaten meat pies, sausages and economy burgers which included mechanically recovered meat in the 1980s and 1990s.
But the full extent of how much MRM was used in food has yet to be determined.
The meat industry stands accused by a government committee of not being open enough about how much “mechanically recovered meat” (MRM) was used in the past.
It says that this is not the case but that often records were not kept of the extent that MRM was used.
MRM is meat residue which is left on the carcass after all the prime cuts have been removed.
It is pressure-blasted off the bones by machinery and forms a reddish slurry which resembles mince.
Some companies then use it to bulk up their meat products.
Experts say it is likely that bits of spinal cord – the part of a cow most likely to be contaminated with BSE – could be found in mechanically recovered meat.
Cheap meat
One trading standards chief, who has investigated the use of MRM, is in no doubts as to the reason for its use.
 John Gummer said British beef was perfectly safe at the height of the BSE crisis |
“It is simply and solely used because of the price of the product,” he said.
In 1994 he took action against a firm for failing to declare that one of its products contained MRM.
He told the BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that, in one investigation, they found that while a piece of flesh cost ?.30 per kg, MRM cost just 37p a kg.
“It is being used because it is so blinking cheap.”
Experts believe that some MRM went into school dinners but again the extent of this is not yet known.
Mr Walker said he had evidence that one national manufacturer had supplied MRM to his authority to be used for feeding school children.
Fresh investigation
But last year’s report by the BSE inquiry heard that in the 1980s research into the MRM process was heralded as one of the great food technology drives of the time.
However, following concern about the rise of BSE in cattle, tighter regulations were introduced in 1989 to ensure that bovine offal including the spinal cord was not available for human consumption.
In the last five years the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (Seac) has been asking food companies how much “mechanically recovered meat” (MRM) was used.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is hoping to find some fresh answers as it launches a new attempt to extract information from the industry about how widely MRM was used in the 1970s and the 1980s.
This month it will ask people who worked in the food industry as long ago as 20 years ago to tell them about practices.
