Meat Industry Defends CO Packaging, FDA to Review Data Again

WASHINGTON ¯ During a Nov. 13 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Gregory Page and Jeffrey Ettinger, the chief executives of Cargill and Hormel Foods Corp., respectively, detailed the facts supporting the safety of meat packaged in low-oxygen modified atmosphere packaging systems (MAP) utilizing minute amounts of carbon monoxide.

But despite scientific evidence supporting the safety of this technology, the Food and Drug Administration agreed to do an additional review of the data surrounding the technology to address lingering questions from some members of the subcommittee.

During the hearing, Mr. Page and Mr. Ettinger noted that companies such as theirs benefit from marketing products that are not only safe, but widely accepted by consumers, such as MAP products.

Now in use for nearly four years and enjoying extraordinarily high levels of consumer acceptance, this packaging technology initially was thrust into the spotlight in 2006 as a result of a campaign waged by Kalsec, the maker of a competing and patented technology using rosemary extract to maintain meat’s red color ¯ in much the same way that low-oxygen packaging systems, which use minute amounts of carbon monoxide.

Read the full MeatPoultry.com story here.

Read Committee Chair Rep. John Dingell’s statement here.