When buying meat poultry products from our local supermarket, especially given the high prices, we may naturally assume that you are getting meat that has been carefully butchered, packaged, and placed on the shelf to the highest standards available. But, unfortunately, not all is as it seems. One way that the food industry saves money whilst lowering quality is by using a factory method called ‘mechanically separated meat’ (MSM). British Chef extraordinaire Jamie Oliver revealed in the early 2000s on his TV show how chicken nuggets are made by using MSM, disgusting millions in the process. So what exactly is MSM, and why are we at Riverside Foods so committed to whole muscle chicken and turkey products? We must warn you that the process of MSM is not for the fainthearted.
What is ‘mechanically separated meat’ (MSM)?
Mechanically separated meat has been used in the poultry industry since the 1960s in a wide range of products such as nuggets, burgers, and sausages.
According to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004, which sets out hygiene rules for food of animal origin, ‘mechanically separated meat’ or ‘ MSM ’ refers to a product that is:
“Obtained by removing meat from flesh-bearing bones after boning or from poultry carcases, using mechanical means resulting in the loss or modification of the muscle fibre structure”.
Another definition from the USDA, which defines it as:
“A paste-like and batter-like meat product produced by forcing bones, with attached edible meat, through a sieve or similar device under high pressure to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue”.
Why do food manufacturers use MSM?
Food manufacturers around the world, including in the UK, use MSM to extract the maximum amount of meat possible from the animals they process. It tends to be much cheaper than using manual methods of butchering, so while prices to consumers of MSM-derived products are lower, manufacturers make more profit. As explained in a 2024 article in the journal ‘Nature’, the increase in the availability of bones and poultry trimmings that remain after the larger muscles (breasts and thighs) are separated meant that MSM emerged in the food industry as an alternative to their disposal, allowing companies to use them for the production of by-products. In other words, rather than throwing away the by-products of the whole muscle industry, companies started using them to make new products.
What is wrong with MSM?
MSM may be inexpensive, but it’s considered to be of inferior quality compared to whole muscle products. In addition to high levels of fat, research now shows that the composition of reconstituted meat using MSM tends to have high levels of sodium nitrite, which is used in industrial practice for the curing process. This is used by food manufacturers to overcome potentially high levels of microorganisms present in the bones when meat is mechanically separated.
Final words
It could be argued that products containing MSM have a place on our supermarket shelves as long as they are safe and consumers understand what they are buying. They reduce the amount of waste from the food industry and provide cheap products for many. At Riverside Foods, our whole-muscle chicken and turkey products, including our premium whole-muscle halal chicken escalopes, cordon bleus, goujons, and kyivs, are both affordable and premium quality. As the term ‘whole muscle’ suggests, our chicken and turkey products are made using traditional methods with little interference from farm to fork; in other words, it is real meat manufactured to the highest quality standards. In our opinion, there is so simply no comparison when it comes to flavour, flavour, and nutrition.
