OSLO (Nettavisen): Huge quantities of ribs are bought before Christmas. Nearly 2.5 million just had prime rib for dinner on Christmas Eve. Now it turns out that some ribs contain not only ribs, but also a lot of water and something else.
– Do they do it to have better meat or to raise the price per kilo? It seems a bit of a scam, says Evy Litovchenco (41), whom we meet at the Kiwi in central Oslo.
At nearby Rema 1000, Helena Bø is out shopping.
– I don’t care if they splash water in the meat, then I pay for the water, he says.
Inject water
Both Kiwi, Meny and Rema 1000 sell ribs with added water. Rema 1000 has a spicy thin rib from Prima Lavpris brand. Here, just over 4 percent of the contents have added water.
The spicy short rib sold by both Kiwi and Meny has nearly twice as much water added, up to 8 percent.
– We get tap water for free, I don’t mind paying for the water injected into the meat I buy, says Eirik Lillebø, who has 25 years of experience as a chef and is co-owner of Vaaghals and Code restaurants.
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Pack of ribs with a quarter of a liter of water
First Price and Prima ribs are cheap products, but you pay more than just the meat.
– It’s okay that these are cheap products, but the injected water has nothing to do with the rib, says Lillebø.
If you buy a three-kilogram piece of Prima rib, the piece of meat itself weighs only 2.85 kilograms. Also included in the price you paid is 1.3 deciliters of water injected into the meat.
If you buy a three-pound piece of First Price prime rib, the piece of meat itself weighs just 6 pounds. Included in the price you paid is almost a quart of injected water.
This is the contents of the ribs
First price spicy prime rib
T-bone pork flank steak, 91%.
Water, 8%.
These ingredients make up 1 percent: salt, potato fiber, glucose, antioxidant, E301 (sodium ascorbate), black pepper
Great low priced spicy ribs
Firm pork meat with 7 bones and rind, 95 percent.
Water, 4.3%.
Salt and pepper, 0.7%.
– Deceiving customers
There are clear differences in how the two ribs are marked and how easy it is to see that the product has added water.
On the packaging of First Price, which we found at Kiwi, it says that the rib has been added at 8%. Certainly in small print, but the writing is highlighted and placed at the top left above the list of ingredients.
– Transparency is important to us and we clearly communicate to the consumer that the product contains water, both prominently and in the ingredients list, says Kine Søyland, communications manager at Norgesgruppen, owner of the First Price brand.
– It doesn’t help that it’s written on the packaging in small print, that misleads customers, says Eirik Lillebø.
On the packaging of the rib that we found at the Rema 1000, it does not say that the rib has added water. That there is water in the ribs is only clarified by stating that water is an ingredient. The amount of water is also not indicated. You have to figure it out yourself, looking at how much meat and spice the product has.
However, this labeling is in line with regulations. Only when the amount of water added is greater than 5% of the weight should the proportion of water be indicated.
Nettavisen informed Rema 1000 of the marking. Now the chain of stores is announcing the changes.
– The product is marked as containing water, and this is in line with the regulations. To be clear, we will label the product with “water added” at the next reprint, says Hege Rognlien, Head of Communications at Rema 1000.
Refuse that they should gain weight
First Price and Norgesgruppen deny adding water to gain weight and thus gain more.
– This has nothing to do with having to gain weight, says Søyland.
– This is a spicy product, so the seasoning is added in the form of a brine, which must also contain water, says Søyland.
Rema 1000 also uses brine, but gets by with about half as much water as First Price.
– The brine will contribute to a juicier result and also the pre-seasoned ribs can be of great help for many customers in the preparation so that they don’t have to salt so much in advance, says Hege Rognlien of Rema 1000.
Both Søyland and Rognlien also point out that the brine can make ribs more durable.
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– This is manipulating the ribs
Chef Eirik Lillebø is not at all convinced that it is wise to sprinkle salt and water on the ribs. He doesn’t rule out that he can make ribs juicy, but he says he will never buy ribs with added water.
– This is rigging ribs, and something the industry does, which I, as a chef, will never do.
– They should stop splashing water on meat. But if they are to continue, the labeling still needs to be improved. Now I think it’s misleading, says shop customer Helena Bø (56).
– There’s no excuse these are cheap ribs. You shouldn’t cheat even if it’s cheap goods, says Evy Litovchenco (41).
