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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingThe beef industry is offering a new kind of steak. It says it has less fat than the most-popular cuts, but just as much flavor.
Who doesn't like a big, juicy steak? But not all cuts are cutting it.
Woman: "Lately you can't really find any good beef because it's really tough."
Tough, because while consumers love that tender taste, there's a growing demand for leaner cuts. Studies also show a majority of meat lovers overcook their beef, leaving even tender cuts tough and unappetizing, but that's changing.
Holly Foster, California Beef Council: "The idea is to create a product that is tender, juicy and one that consumers - no matter their cooking level or skill - can go home and enjoy their eating experience with beef."
That product is fresh meat that's been moisture enhanced the process has been done for years with poultry and pork. Now beef's getting on board.
Holly Foster, CA Beef Council: "From a consistency standpoint this is what consumers want"
Here's how it works. A cut of beef is injected with a solution intended to keep it tender - even if you overcook it. However, the process not only boosts the juice, it shakes up the salt. To keep the moisture solution locked inside the meat and to prolong shelf life -- salt is added to the solution, such as sodium phosphates, and sodium lactate.
JoAnn Hattner, RD, Nutritionist: "Unless they examine it very carefully, they don't know that it has a hidden amount of sodium, which could be actually very harmful to their health."
Harmful in that for some, a diet too high in salt can be linked to high blood pressure. While beef is naturally low in sodium, that may not the case with enhanced meat. For example, a typical prime rib steak contains 300 milligrams of sodium per serving. If you eat the whole thing, that's nine hundred or roughly forty percent of your daily salt allotment, sixty percent if you're on a salt restricted diet.
JoAnn Hattner, RD, Nutritionist: "If you're running in the 3,5 up to 700 that's a whopping amount of sodium in one your meat which you may then unknowingly go and salt again."
Enhanced products must be clearly marked. They're required by law to carry an ingredients label.
Holly Foster: "If consumers are concerned from a health standpoint about the added ingredients, reading that label and understanding what been, process that product had gone thru will allow them to make a different choice is they are concerned."
But in the products we found, the print was not only tough to read, some were covered by pricing labels.
JoAnn Hattner, RD: "You really have to search you really have to sleuth, as I would say. Be your own detective look for that hidden sodium."
16 percent of the meat sold to consumers in the US is moisture enhanced.
