Farmer John Ground Pork

If you're looking for ground pork at the store, it might look like this package.

And look, it's pork. I wonder what the natural flavor is. Wait, I don't know if I want to know.*


Look at how pink it is, especially the part that was sitting on the packaging maxipad.


The difference between ground pork and ground beef is striking don't you think?


Farmer John ground pork available in a one pound package in the meat section of Stater Bros. for $3.99.

*Okay, so I Googled it. I found the following statement, lines 11-19, in a paper called OVERVIEW OF FLAVOR ADDITIVES. For the sake of convenience, I also included links to the referenced CFR parts. 

Natural Flavor:

“…the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein

hydrolystate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which

contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or

vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf of similar plant material, meat,

seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose

significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.”

 

Natural flavors include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in 21 CFR Parts 182.10, 182.20, and 182.40, as well as those listed in Parts 184 and 172.50.

 

Reviewing these parts, I wonder if the natural flavor Farmer John used was simply nitrogen gas (grab the link to nitrogen, part 184.1540, from the list in 184, linked above) for packaging purposes. I mean, look at the type of package it is. The headspace is high and nobody wants to buy brown pork.

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