I am not a social media fanatic. In fact, I probably have avoided it more than most of my friends. As y'all know, I prefer to read a good ol’ hand-held book. But I do keep up with things on social media for fun. I love to keep up with friends and their vacations, growing kids, and just funny stuff that happens. Most of my social media use is FB and Snapchat (who doesn’t love the filters?). But I have to admit that over the last year, I have started watching YouTube videos more and more often. My primary reason is for fun or to learn a new yoga pose — but more and more I am learning about new consumer trends in meat and poultry. Most of them are fun, but some are very strange.

As many of you have probably heard, there are many rumors surrounding the COVID vaccine. There are many videos out there suggesting that those vaccinated can become more magnetic. I am not here to debunk this as there are many videos out there explaining the science and the truth in an effort to stem those rumors. But a spin-off from this rumor is that poultry/meat is magnetic because of something “crazy” we as an industry are doing to our birds/animals. Yep — the newest craze is magnetic meat.

I have talked to many friends and scientists over the last couple of weeks about this topic and the science behind it. Here are some points to consider:

Iron is found in meat in the form of myoglobin, the oxygen and iron binding protein found in skeletal muscle. Blood contains not only iron but also nickel and cobalt, all of which are magnetic. Our body (animals included) don’t make iron. That’s why we eat meat and other food. Some examples of food with iron include dark green vegetables (like spinach), meats (especially red meat), and fortified cereals. That means any of them can potentially be attracted to a magnet. In addition, most people take a daily multivitamin, which contains iron. So, there is nothing wrong with eating iron; if we don’t eat it, we become anemic and bad things happen.
Most poultry meat goes through a metal detector at the plant for foreign metal detection, so it is safe.
In all the videos they are using the same round magnet. I don’t know much about the magnet they are using. It is a flat surface and has a larger surface area. I can lick a spoon and make it stick to my nose so there probably needs to be some investigation into the magnet they are using. It could be a mixture of surface area and moisture.
In one of the videos, the guy is sticking a magnet to the packaged meat and there is juice leaking from the package all over his counter. I am seriously concerned about the chicken juice leaking from the package onto his counter and his lack of concern about that versus the magnet. Food safety EEEEKKKKK moment for me!
We need to bring back agricultural education, especially K-12!

Most of us know how to debunk this concern of magnet meat/humans and vaccines. I, of course, am giving this subject a 100% BS factor as it related to the meat and poultry industry doing something “crazy” during production and processing. Thankfully, I have moved on to better topics on YouTube that are more exciting and interesting.

What’s with the new attraction to meat and poultry?

Join for free* to continue reading.