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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
The U. S. Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline receives many questions about flavoring ingredients listed on the labels of meat and poultry products. These words and chemical names -- such as monosodium glutamate -- may be difficult to understand. Among the questions is, "What can be in 'natural flavorings'?"
Prior to March 1990, many flavorings derived from meat, poultry, eggs, milk, plants or yeast could be listed on a meat or poultry label under general categories such as "natural flavoring," "flavors," or "spices."
Although labels for meat and poultry products were required to list all ingredients by their common or usual names prior to 1990, an exception was made for these flavoring substances. The reasoning for this exception was related to the expectation that these so-called "flavorings" were used primarily for their flavor contribution and not their nutritional contribution.
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) felt that it was important for consumers to know the content of "natural flavorings" because of health and religious reasons:
On March 1, 1990, FSIS published a final rule titled,"Ingredients That May Be Designated as Natural Flavors, Natural Flavorings, Flavors or Flavorings When Used In Meat or Poultry Products."
The rule defines the ingredients that may be declared as "natural flavor" or "flavors" on meat and poultry labels, for example, spices, spice extractives, and distillates. The rule requires more specific listing of certain ingredients. Substances such as dried beef stock, autolyzed yeast and hydrolyzed proteins must be listed on the label by their common or usual name because their primary purpose is not flavor. For example, they are flavor enhancers, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and binders.
Here are the answers to some questions about ingredients used to flavor or enhance the flavor of meat and poultry products:
ANSWER: MSG is classified as a flavor enhancer and when it is added to a product, must be identified as such, that is, as "monosodium glutamate" in the ingredients statement on the label.
ANSWER: "Pork extract" will appear in the ingredients statement on the label. This is an example of a meat product that is defined by law and will always be declared by a common or usual name.
ANSWER: Examples of ingredients that may still be listed as "natural flavor", "natural flavoring", "flavor" or "flavoring" are spices such as ginger and black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, celery powder, and garlic oil, a spice extractive. They may be used because they are substances used chiefly for flavor. These substances do not make a nutritional contribution, do not relate to an animal species, and there are no health concerns.
ANSWER: Glutamine is an amino acid, one of the building blocks of protein. It is found in abundance in virtually all foods that are high in protein, including meat, poultry, fish; tomatoes, cheese and many vegetables. MSG is the salt form of glutamine. To be more flavorful, proteins are hydrolyzed. That means the proteins are chemically broken down to amino acids. This, in turn, may result in the formation of free glutamine (an amino acid) which may form monosodium glutamate.
ANSWER: Hydrolyzed vegetable or animal protein must be identified in the ingredients statement on the labels. The source of the protein must be disclosed. On the label, you will read, for example, hydrolyzed wheat protein or hydrolyzed casein, not just " hydrolyzed protein".
ANSWER: Substances derived from animal sources must be identified as to species of origin on the label and according to the definition established by federal regulation. For example, dried chicken stock, dried beef broth, lamb extract or dried beef plasma would appear on the label.
ANSWER: Contact the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline (see below), or:
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 1 (800) 332-4010;
Internet address http://www.fda.gov/
International Food Information Council (IFIC)
1100 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 430
Washington, DC 20036; (202) 296-6540
Internet address http://ificinfo.health.org/
The Glutamate Association
555 Thirteenth Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20004; (202) 783-6135
For additional food safety information about meat, poultry or eggs, call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1 (800) 535-4555. It is staffed by home economists, dietitians and food technologists from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET year round. An extensive selection of food safety recordings can be heard 24 hours a day using a touch-tone phone.
Information and publications can be downloaded from USDA's Home Page on the Internet Home Page at http://www.fsis.usda.gov
The media may call Bessie Berry, Manager, USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, at (202) 720-5604.
February 1997
For Further Information Contact:
FSIS Food Safety Education Staff
Meat and Poultry Hotline:
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