With the introduction of EU sanctions, low-quality imported meat products in the Russian market have become much less. However, even counterfeiters on store shelves that are still unhealthy are still quite common. After all, it is simply impossible to raise domestic agriculture that has fallen into decay over the years of purchasing imported products in just a couple of years. And therefore, meat stuffed with hormones continues to enter the Russian market - bypassing sanctions, mainly through third world countries.
In pursuit of short-term profit, they violate the established technologies for raising animals and many domestic agricultural producers. Therefore, when buying meat in a store or even in the market, you should be extremely careful and careful.
How to distinguish a farm product from a fake
In order not to buy a counterfeit harmful to health, when choosing meat, you should first of all pay attention to its appearance. Natural high-quality product has such characteristic features:
Smooth and dry cut. You can distinguish farm meat from a fake, for example, by slightly wetting it with a clean napkin. If the product is of high quality, there will be practically no trace on it.
Juice from a fresh cut on a piece of natural meat stands out exceptionally transparent and in very small quantities.
Fat layers in a quality product have a pearl white color. Their yellow hue indicates that the animal was most likely either very old or sick.
Quality pork always has a soft pink color, and beef - raspberry red, not too pale and not particularly bright. Farm poultry meat can be distinguished from the usual one by a slightly darker shade.
Product after heat treatment
Dishes prepared from farm meat obtained by raising animals using traditional technologies have a pleasant taste and smell. Goulash, cutlets and fake soups certainly can’t boast of such qualities. Among other things, when cooking or frying, farm meat practically does not lose weight. A fake product after heat treatment can often decrease in volume by two to three times.
Varieties
Beef in our country is perhaps the most popular farm meat. Pork in stores also sells a lot. However, in addition to these two most common varieties, on the modern grocery market, there is also such farm meat as:
Rabbit meat. Since this species is not particularly popular in our country, its large deliveries from abroad are not made. Therefore, in most cases, it is just farming and natural.
Mutton. Some people believe that if such meat does not have a specific smell, it means that it is a fake. However, this opinion is not entirely true. Many sheep breeds brought to our country recently have been distinguished by the fact that their meat does not smell at all like lamb. Therefore, when choosing such a product, as well as beef or pork, in the first place, you should still pay attention to its appearance.
Poultry meat. Both domestic and imported products of this variety are counterfeit very often. The largest share of hormonal duck, chicken and goose meat on the market is supplied by large Russian poultry farms. Of course, well-known to all imported chicken legs are not a natural product in most cases.
What you should know about
Especially attentive to the buyer in Russia today should be when choosing beef. High-quality meat of this variety in the domestic market in our time is very small. The fact is that for growing, for example, the same bird, it does not take too much time - only about six months. To get high-quality pork, the farmer needs about 11-12 months. Cattle, on the other hand, gain slaughter weight in most cases no earlier than 2.5 years. Therefore, organized after the imposition of sanctions, new domestic farms engaged in the cultivation of cows and gobies simply did not have time to fill the market with quality products.
How is natural meat produced: feed
Developing the right diet is something that an entrepreneur who organizes a farm should take care of. The meat in animals and poultry can be of good quality only if good natural feed is used. Such, for example, as:
wheat, oats, barley and other cereals;
root crops (primarily fodder beets, as well as rutabaga, potatoes, carrots, etc.);
hay from meadow grasses (for cattle and small cattle), silage, etc.
As additives for a product such as farm meat, only vitamins, baker's yeast and mixtures containing useful trace elements (mainly calcium) are used in model farms. Hormonal drugs that reduce the time for animals to gain slaughter weight by two to three times, as well as various kinds of harmful chemical dressings, are not used in this case.
Of course, the farmer’s meat received in this way deserves very good reviews from consumers. Types of such a natural product may be different. But one thing unites them - any dishes prepared from them have a wonderful taste and do not cause any harm to health.
What else but improper feeding can adversely affect meat quality?
Some farmers, including domestic ones, among other things, when raising animals and poultry greatly abuse the use of various kinds of medicines, mainly from the group of antibiotics. Healthy cows and pigs are simply given injections periodically to prevent even minor diseases. This allows farmers to save certain amounts on the services of veterinarians. But this approach, of course, ultimately leads to a significant decrease in the quality of meat.
Where in our country you can buy natural products
Farm meat is sold in Russia in most cases, of course, only on the market. Here, usually on weekends, it is implemented by villagers coming to the city. Sometimes a similar product (most often chicken or rabbit meat) can be purchased from summer residents. They sell quality farm meat and specialty shops owned by small and medium-sized farmers. Prices for natural beef in such retail outlets most often start at 600 rubles, for pork - from 300 r.
In large cities, some intermediary companies sell farm meat with delivery. Employees of such companies bring the freshest product directly to the buyer’s house directly from private farms or from the slaughterhouse. However, such a service is, of course, quite expensive, and not every city dweller can afford to make such orders.