The Truth About Uncured Meats

When you’re at the grocery store, do you ever feel like all you see is greenwashed logos and brands? It’s hard to find anything that’s not “all natural” or non-GMO. We’ve talked about labels before, and how they can be misleading. For example, meat is always gluten free, but now tons of meat products have a gluten-free label on them. Some consumers likely don’t realize that all meat has always been gluten free, and they pay extra for that little banner. One of the most misleading labels-in my opinion at least-is the “uncured” label on processed meats.

What do you think of when you see that label on your lunch meat or bacon?

I assume  most people, when they see this label, think Oh, there’s not as many chemicals! It’s gotta be better. More natural. Maybe even healthier!

The good news is, I was really impressed with how accurate the first few Google results were when I looked up the differences between uncured and cured bacon. I saw only a few statements that uncured bacon might be healthier, and the description of what uncured bacon actually is was on point.

So what does the “Uncured” label actually mean? Well if you notice, it’s always followed by a tagline that says something like “No Nitrates or Nitrites added. Except those naturally occuring in celery juice.” This could also say something like cherry juice and sea salt rather than celery. This disclaimer is always way smaller than the giant “UNCURED” label. When I see it, it really strikes me as confusing. If I was a customer who had no idea what was really behind this label, I would wonder why it says ‘no nitrates/nitrites added’ followed by ‘except’. To me, ‘no...added’ means NOT ADDED. At all. Usually when you have a disclaimer like that, it means nothing extra is added, but what naturally occurs in the product remains-kind of like the “No Hormones added” disclaimer. Meat and poultry have natural hormones that still remain even when no hormones are added. This disclaimer says except...which means that those things are added, but in this case they just weren’t made in a lab. When something is labeled uncured, it actually means it was cured with natural Nitrates, Nitrites, and sodium rather than man made flavoring agents with the same elements.

 So if the Nitrites and Nitrates are still added and still occuring…why does it matter if you buy uncured or cured meats? Long story short--  it doesn’t and if a consumer is thinking similarly they wouldn’t spend more money for the same quality. What happens though, is that they see that packaging. The word uncured is in giant font that make you feel like it’s an important word, and the smaller words underneath don’t matter. The neutral and green colors that are on some packages (Oscar Meyer uses them a lot, with little leaves too) draw you in, make you feel like it’s a better choice because it looks natural; it looks better, maybe even healthier.  The packaging throws our minds through a loop and the packaging helps influence our decision to purchase it. Several studies have been done showing that colors influence consumers choices. Companies use colors all the time to market their products. If you’re part of the zero waste or eco friendly communities you’ve probably heard the term green washing. That’s when a company makes their product look and sound environmentally friendly, but there is no substance to their claims. In a way, that is what these companies are doing when they sell you uncured food stuffs. They do it with a lot of all natural products too. They make it look good, so you buy it, thinking it’s better all around.

Now that we know Nitrites and Nitrates still exist in “uncured” products, let’s discuss why they exist. If you read last week’s blog on Black History Month you know that Lloyd Hall is the one who patented meat curings. Before Lloyd Hall’s meat curings, meat was normally preserved with just salt. Salting the meat so much would cause it to lose the original flavor and sometimes the meat would just fall apart. Using the correct amounts of sodium nitrates and nitrites on meat allowed the meat to become preserved without being affected by the salt. The curing salts lock in flavor and freshness quickly. Before Hall’s work, meat spoiled during transport and so much meat was wasted. Often, meat that was only salted and then transported carried botulism. I don’t know about you but I’m so thankful that our meat doesn’t have botulism… and if meat labeled “uncured” actually was uncured I definitely wouldn’t buy it.  Hall’s curing mix helps preserve meat and keep it at a higher quality, and is totally necessary in today’s world. Without it, we wouldn’t have sausages, bacon, lunch meats, and hams. I love all of those things and so Lloyd Hall is one of my favorite food chemists!

I hope that this has helped you understand the uncured label. If you want to read more about Lloyd Augustus Hall, check out this link. If you have any other questions feel free to leave them in the comments below!