What you see is not necessarily what you are eating, when it comes to meat. When you choose a package of meat at the grocery store, what are you looking for? Most of us, pick that nice, fresh, pink-colored one. We usually will pass by that one that is looking rather dark, or maybe slightly gray or brown. Turns out, they may be the same meat, cut and wrapped at the same time, only one has been tampered with.

Two years ago, the FDA approved the practice of injecting carbon monoxide into meat to keep the appearance of freshness in the product. The procedure is coming into common use now and is causing some controversy. I guess that it's something like allowing a used car dealer to wash and maintain an older car to give it the "appearance" of being newer. Anyone see the difference here?

The meat industry was losing about one billion dollars a year because consumers refuse to buy oxygen-brown meat, so they devised a way to make the meat look fresh. The packagers are not required to mark this meat as having been treated by this means, so the consumer is unaware of what he is buying.

There have also been warnings by experts that there may be higher levels of salmonella produced by treating the meat in this way.

This is another good reason to become a vegetarian.