Mummified bologna of Bar-s Foods
It turns out the more popular brand is the more health damaging it can be. When once in a while I order a foot long sandwich at Subway, I never ask for American cheese. Perhaps not so many Americans know that the way American cheese is made makes it illegal to sell it in the USA under the name “cheese.” American cheese is manufactured by mixing milk fat, whey and milk protein with saturated oils and emulsifiers. In short, it is a food surrogate. Unfortunately it is not the only one. Here is another: Bar-s bologna. Similarly, as you may guess, Bar-s bologna “made with chicken, pork and beef” has nothing to do with the Italian bologna sausage. Let’s see what they failed to list.
Bar-s-bologna
With mechanically separated chicken as the main ingredient and a dozen of added chemicals the fake bologna of Bar-s is not something intended for human consumption. According to the USDA, mechanically separated meat (MSM) it is a paste-like meat product produced by forcing pureed or ground meat under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue. Since 2004 due to the regulations by Food Safety and Inspection Service, mechanically separated beef is considered inedible and is prohibited for use as human food.
Mechanically separated chicken meat
However, mechanically separated pork is permitted and must be labeled as “mechanically separated pork” in the ingredients statement. Same is true for mechanically separated poultry. Well, even if so, my taste-test of Bar-s bologna strongly convinced me not to consider it as a food. Below is another reason.
Mummified bologna
Potassium acetate is used in food industry as a preservative and acidity regulator. It is not toxic, but curiously, potassium acetate is also used in mixtures applied for tissue preservation, fixation, and mummification. Most museums today use the formaldehyde-based method recommended by Kaiserling in 1897 which contains potassium acetate. For example, Lenin’s mummy was soaked in a bath containing potassium acetate. You can see now why shelf-life of a pack of Bar-s bologna is record long.
Mummified bologna
Real chicken meat contains twice as much protein (25%) as fat (13%) and real pork supplies similarly 27% protein and 14% fat. Due to technologies of mass production of food, bologna of Bar-s Foods gives you the opposite – twice as much fat as protein. According to the Nutrition Facts on the label, the fake bologna contains 8 g (25%) fat only 3 g (9.4%) protein and 2 g (6.2%) carbohydrates per 32 g serving. These main components constitute for only ~41% by weight. What makes the rest 59%?
Low food ratings
Don’t get me wrong, Bar-s Foods products are not toxic. They are waste of resources and your money. The Dye Diet Calculator indicates
Dye Diet result for Bar-s bologna
low Health Risk of 0.35 but also low Nutritional Value of 0.74. So, no, you are not going to die tomorrow of eating Bar-s bologna today. But you should not expect to flourish eating it either.
Fooducate assigns to Bar-s bologna a very low rating of red D+ citing nitrites and high processing.
Fooducate result for Bar-s bologna
Bottom line. If you have a curiosity for unhealthy exotic something you may take all the risks trying mummified mechanically separated meat of Bar-s Foods. But keep in mind that your body will hardly benefit from consumption of this stuff based on its low nutritional value and the ingredients useful for corpse mummification. So if you do not want to be survived by a pack of Bar-s bologna, buy a chunk of meat and cook it for yourself or select a sausage carefully reading ingredients on the label. Good luck!
Category: American diet, Dye Diet Calculator, Meat, Sausage
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