Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content  First pink
slime, now meat glue?  Perhaps after seeing what a big splash
they were able to make with pink slime, food activists are now
going after something they've dubbed "meat glue."  The latest
dustup is over transglutaminase, an enzyme used to bind
different cuts of meat together.  This media report, if
breathless and sensational, does a good job of demonstrating how
it is used:  After media reports about the practice surfaced, a
California senator contacted the USDA with concerns about food
safety and asking for an investigation.  "If a whole steak was
actually composed of different meat parts that were glued
together, the center portions of the steak can be contaminated.
The outside parts of the meat now become the inside parts of the
new steak," said Sen. Ted W. Lieu of Sacramento. "If that
'reformed' steak is not thoroughly cooked and served rare or
medium rare, the inside portions of the steak can still be
contaminated and cause sickness to the consum