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We are bitter. You are being duped with celery juice.

written by

Marie Reedell

posted on

June 26, 2020

Farmer Aaron is figuring out how to continually and naturally produce his cured meat products like bacon, hams, pork sausages, beef sausages, and beef snacks without icky synthetic ingredients. 

Many people who produce USDA meat insist that you need to add nitrates and nitrites for safety. The big idea is to avoid the risk of botulism. And, yes, we definitely want to do that. 


Nitrates and nitrites are used to preserve meat. Itā€™s the reason cured meat is pink or red. It adds a salty flavor. And, it also inhibits the growth of potentially harmful bacteria. 

On the flip side, nitrates and nitrites have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. Well, we definitely want to avoid that, too!


Nitrates are pretty inert. But, nitrites can convert into nitrosamines, and these can trigger cancer and other diseases. This is a big topic, and you can learn more about nitrites here.

Soā€¦ what do ā€œnaturalā€ and ā€œorganicā€ meat companies do? Well, they found a natural replacement for adding nitrates and nitrites - celery juice!


It sounds good, right? Celery is natural and is considered healthy. And, companies can slap a ā€œno nitrates or nitrates addedā€ label on their products, making consumers feel safe and educated. 

Hereā€™s the kicker. Celery juice naturally contains nitrates and nitrites, sometimes in lesser and sometimes in greater amounts than the synthetic version.


(Oh, and by the way, the same is true for pink salt.)

Itā€™s not shocking that the USDA would allow celery juice or pink salt as a natural replacement. What Iā€™m blown away by again is the false advertising. How could a company put ā€œno nitrates or nitrites addedā€ on the label when they actually were? Itā€™s very mis-leading. 

Why canā€™t we simply cure meat with plain old salt like we have for centuries? 


I get it. The risk of disease. With pepperoni or soppressata thatā€™s eaten unheated, it makes sense. We want to avoid preventable disease. But, with something like bacon, ham, or sausage thatā€™s handled properly and cooked all the way through, the risk of disease is basically none.

Please know that we can truly say that no nitrates or nitrites are added to our products - synthetic or natural. None. 


Farmer Aaron will continue to learn more about cured meats. There must be a path forward that meets both the farmerā€™s and the USDAā€™s standards. There must be a way to produce natural AND safe meat products.

Weā€™ll be sure to keep you posted with any changes to our meat processing or ingredients.

Opinion

Pastured Meat

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Our bone broth tested negative-ish for heavy metals šŸ„³ NATURAL AND CLEAN

Over the past few months a bunch of people asked us if we tested our bone broth for toxic heavy metals. When we get the same question a lot, we of course look into it. My first question was --- Is there an issue with toxic metals in bone broth? As it turns out, yes, there "can" be an issue! Heavy metals are naturally present in our environment. We need the "good" heavy metals to thrive: iron, zinc, magnesium, copper, etc. But, we can 100% do without the toxic heavy metals: arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, etc. Too many toxic heavy metals can lead to a host of pretty awful issues: nervous system damage, cardiovascular issues, cancer, endocrine disruption, kidney damage, and so on. Our body is designed to excrete heavy metals through urine (and a little bit through sweat, hair, and breastmilk too)... but only so much. There's a limit. If you're overloaded, your body will store those heavy metals in your bones, blood, tissues, and organs. Similarly, if an animal is exposed to heavy metals via food, water, air, dust, or soil, those heavy metals accumulate in the bones. Maybe the farm's soil or air is contaminated from a nearby factory. Maybe the pipes for the water has lead solder connecting them. Maybe the feed a farm is buying was grown on contaminated soil or processed on contaminated equipment.  And, of course, a main purpose of bone broth is drawing out as much as possible from the bones. If there are heavy metals in bones, they will make their way into the broth. This is especially true when you pre-soak with apple cider vinegar and simmer for 48 hours to make it thick and gelatinous (like our broth). And that led me to my second question --- Should I be concerned about every bone broth? Where is the fear coming from? Well... it seems it might be a little political. There was a study done in the UK in 2013 that scared a lot of people. It's titled "The Risk of Lead Contamination in Bone Broth Diets". This study found high levels of lead in organic chicken bone broth, which is quite concerning. And, in fact, this one study is still cited in articles written today! Let's dig a little deeper. Let's go farther than the short abstract. Here are the broths tested in the study and their test results for lead:  (9.5 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus skin and cartilage(7.01 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus bones(2.3 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus meat(0.89 parts per billion): Tap water alone cooked for the same amount of time as a control. But, they only used organic chicken from one farm. And, there's zero information about that farm, their practices, the feed, and the broth recipe. Did they use vinegar or wine in the broth? Was the chicken's water contaminated with lead? What was the quality of the feed and the soil? Were the chickens raised indoors or outdoors? So many unanswered questions! All we get is that it was one "organic chicken" that created a lead issue with broth. Another curious thing is that the broth with skin and cartilage contained more lead than the broth made with just bones. Bones are where lead is stored, so why wouldn't the broth made with bones only contain more lead? It's an odd result. Moreover, the abstract of the study specifically called out "bone broth diets" like GAPS and paleo. They even go so far as to write, "In view of the dangers of lead consumption to the human body, we recommend that doctors and nutritionists take the risk of lead contamination into consideration when advising patients about bone broth diets." That's quite curious. Why are they worried about these diets? Are the researchers anti healing through food? Who funded the research? Is it political? My opinion? This study is not comprehensive. It does not speak to all bone broths. But it does cover a potential issue if the water or animals are overloaded with heavy metals. What I glean from this study is that we need more research. We don't need fear to spread and people to stop drinking broth from this one study. Regardless of whether the fear was fabricated or legit, we tested our bone broth anyway. After all, it's always nice to validate that your food choices are as clean as you think. For Miller's, here were my concerns before testing: What if there's mercury in the fishmeal in our chicken feed?What if the soil that our animals live on is contaminated?What is the well water that the broth is made with is contaminated?What if the Celtic sea salt has lots of heavy metals? We got the test results back. I was super excited. But, I was also confused. At face value, it appeared that our bone broth tested NEGATIVE for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. You can find the test results right here! You'll notice that, for every sample, the results are "<0.01 mg/kg" and "<0.02 mg/kg".  I asked the lab what the "<" means. They said that it indicates their limit of quantitation (LOQ), the lowest concentration that can be accurately tested using the test procedure in that sample type. So the results simply report that none of the metals tested were found in the sample above the specific reporting LOQs. Whether or not they were present below this LOQ is information that is not provided by the test. When talking to the lab, I told them what we needed and assumed that this test would go below a 1 ppb. So, when the results came in, I assumed that a "mg/kg" was the same as a part per billion (ppb). Ummm... that math wasn't write! A "mg/kg" is actually a part per million (ppm). That means that the test we ran had results saying that the broth had less than 0.02 ppm (or 20 ppb) of arsenic and lead. And, it had less than 0.01 ppm (or 10 ppb) of cadmium and mercury. For some reference, the EPA says that less than 15 ppb of lead is safe in drinking water. Not saying that I agree, but it's a good reference point.  These results are good. It means the broth definitely isn't overloaded with toxic heavy metals. But, it's not good enough!!! We need to test again! We really need to a lower LOQ. We need to know the results with an accuracy of as low as 1 ppb. It looks like the lab we sent the original samples to doesn't have an LOQ that low. So here I am on the hunt for a lab to do it again. As soon as I can, I'll send samples in again and paying for more expensive testing to get the info you deserve. Stay tuned! I hope to have the new results in by the end of April 2025. Do you worry about toxic metals (or other junk) in your food? Where have your fears stemmed from? I'd love to hear from you. You can comment below (no account required) or contact us šŸ˜Š ----- Sources The risk of lead contamination in bone broth dietsBone Broth and Lead Toxicity: Should You Be Concerned?Bone Broth and Lead Contamination: A Very Flawed Study in Medical HypothesesBone Broth, Collagen, and Toxic Metals: A Research Review