You are too red for our own good.

Since 2004, the USDA and Department of Agriculture have allowed for meat gassed with carbon monoxide to be sold on shelves in supermarkets:

Treating packaged meat with CO extends its shelf-life by keeping it red long after it begins to spoil. In fact, gassed meat holds its color for upwards of one year, whereas CO-free packaged meat typically starts to turn after just 10 to 12 days on the shelf. It’s easy to see why the meat industry likes CO: Gassed meat could save retailers $1 billion annually in lost sales resulting from that finicky consumer aversion to browning meat.

Why would the government permit this practice? After all, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act provides that a “food shall be deemed to be adulterated — if damage or inferiority has been concealed in any manner; or if any substance has been added thereto or mixed or packed therewith so as to — make it appear better or of greater value than it is.” This bar on concealing adulteration is what drove the USDA to ban the use of paprika in fresh meat products in 1969. CO injections are no different: Their sole purpose is to conceal inferiority and damage.

A few retailers have banned gassed meat including Whole Foods, Wegmans (CC!), Stop & Shop, and now Safeway.

You want to keep meat red? You keep it cold. That keeps it “fresh.” When you inject it with carbon monoxide, it looks “fresh” when it’s already spoiled as you can see in these photos of old spoiled yet still red meat. I hope other supermarkets follow the trend of refusing to sell gassed meat.

Read the whole story in the Topeka Capital Journal.