Essay Sample on How the Meat Industry is Causing Illnesses by Using Chemicals

Studies have shown that our meat industry uses chemicals that can cause illnesses for our bodies. Meat processing refers to the treatment of meat to preserve or add flavor through curing, salting, and fermenting. Some types of processed meat include bacon, canned meat, hot dogs, salami, and sausages. While processing meat, especially for canning, some chemical additives such as sodium nitrite are used to preserve meat color, improve meat flavor, or inhibit bacterial growth.

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Thesis:

Supporting the meat industry is a risk to our health. Our meat industry is comprised of animal products that are being injected with chemicals that are causing a number of chronic illnesses in today’s society to increase such as diabetes, various cancers, and heart disease. To reduce the amount of illnesses that are caused due to the practices of the meat industry, people should limit the amount of processed meat in their diets to avert health complications associated with excess consumption.

Background Information:

Topic Sentence: The meat industry consists of many detrimental materials that are in animals and are being distributed. The meat industry utilize animals such as pigs and cows to produced food to the community. The animal products can travel through our bodies in many different ways which can allow illnesses to develop through humans.

The meat factories slaughter, process, package, and sell the meat of livestock such as cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and fish. Before these livestock are taken for slaughter, they may be exposed to harmful substances through feeds and medications (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

The harmful residues may remain in livestock bodies and later enter into the human body through consumption.

Residues are the remains of harmful chemical substances or heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic, and lead inside the body of an animal.

Large amounts of chemical residues in meat are lethal for human health.

There are numerous ways through which harmful chemical substances enter the animal body.

Animal meat can be contaminated with residues when farmers fail to follow veterinary directions while administering medicines.

Farmers may also contaminate meat by failing to observe export slaughter interval (ESI) or withholding period (WHP).

Livestock can swallow harmful chemical substances while eating stock feed treated with pesticides such as pickled grain, grazing on orchards, and old potato paddocks contaminated with organochlorines or other persistent chemicals (Kamboj et al. 363).

Livestock can also ingest chemicals from lead batteries left in old yards, sheds, old house sites, painted materials, or farm dump.

Moreover, livestock may also graze on pastures contaminated with insect-control chemicals and herbicides, leading to meat poisoning (National Cancer Institute 3). Therefore, chemicals in animal meat are accumulated during feeding and medication before they are taken for slaughter and meat processing.

Core Argument:

Topic Sentence: Processed meat contains harmful chemical substances that cause illnesses in humans .

Chemicals in Meat

The meat industry cannot eliminate these chemicals from meat to ensure safe consumption.

Therefore, people should limit the amount of meat they consume to reduce the chances of contracting various diseases associated with meat chemicals.

Food dyes such as Ponceau SX, and Ponceau 3R, are used to preserve food in the meat industry to make it applicable for people to eat (Iammarino et al. 1).

Chemicals are added to fresh meat for them to stay fresh longer. Workers added chemicals in meat making it dangerous for humans (Kamboj, Sahil, et al. "Food Safety and Hygiene).

Clostridium perfringes is preserved in many different meat that’s in the meat industry. This bacterium is damaging towards many people’s health.( Khan, Mumtaz Ali., et al.618).

Meat processing plants cause more illnesses and harm than the average U.S factory in terms of chemicals. The illnesses are caused by infected carcasses or tissues, and bacteria.

Eating plant-based foods prevents the possibility of becoming ill from chemicals and bacteria.

Opposing Argument:

Topic Sentence: Researchers proved that our meat industry can be safe.

However, meat processing companies claim that their meat products are safe for human consumption.

Nanotechnology is one of the latest techniques cited to have enhanced the safety of livestock and poultry meat processing (Reddy et al. 61).

Apart from that, companies dealing with processed meat products claim that they have measures in place to ensure the safety of their products.

Livestock farmers have been equipped with the necessary knowledge and equipment to manage chemical residues in their livestock to avoid meat poisoning.

Farmers are given veterinary directions, adopt responsible farming practices, and keep good livestock records to keep animals free from harmful farm chemical residues.

Moreover, companies try to keep chemical residues in livestock meat below the maximum residue limit (MRL), making their products safe for consumption.

Refutation

Despite the claim processed meats are safe because chemical residues have been kept below maximum residue limits, processed meat still poses a risk of harmful effects on humans.

Meat preservatives are still added to enhance flavor and lengthen shelf life.

The meat preservatives may form harmful compounds when exposed to heat, thereby causing human diseases.

Conclusion:

The meat industry is an essential provider of animal protein. However, excess consumption of processed meat can cause some complications in humans due to the accumulation of bits of harmful chemical residues. Therefore, people should limit the amount of processed meat in their diets to avoid such complications from over-consumption.