Tax on bacon and sausage?

[Eater Sundae 12]

On today’s news there are calls for taxes on processed meats such as bacon and sausage because of their risk to health.

 

One thing that I find hard to understand is whether the health risks apply to all processed meats, or whether it depends on the quantity of chemicals added. I find it hard to understand that heavily processed meats containing preservatives are similar to the British style banger, which is basically fresh meat and fillers, but without the preservatives found in chorizos and similar types of sausage.

[Halibut 12]

On today’s news there are calls for taxes on processed meats such as bacon and sausage because of their risk to health.

 

One thing that I find hard to understand is whether the health risks apply to all processed meats, or whether it depends on the quantity of chemicals added. I find it hard to understand that heavily processed meats containing preservatives are similar to the British style banger, which is basically fresh meat and fillers, but without the preservatives found in chorizos and similar types of sausage.

 

Not so. Most sausages contain sodium metabisulphate.

[helloitsonly 10]

On today’s news there are calls for taxes on processed meats such as bacon and sausage because of their risk to health.

 

One thing that I find hard to understand is whether the health risks apply to all processed meats, or whether it depends on the quantity of chemicals added. I find it hard to understand that heavily processed meats containing preservatives are similar to the British style banger, which is basically fresh meat and fillers, but without the preservatives found in chorizos and similar types of sausage.

 

all depends on the quality, higher quality with 80% meat will need less preservatives than something like cheap and nasty sausages like richmond etc.

 

---------- Post added 07-11-2018 at 09:16 ----------

 

Not so. Most sausages contain sodium metabisulphate.

 

only cheap and nasty ones.

[Cyclone 10]

Does the processing of the meat make the haem (the natural thing in the meat that makes it red) more biologically available perhaps?

Haem is known to be metabolised by the body in a way that produces small quantities of harmful chemicals. Hence why red meat is 'bad' for you and white meat isn't.

[Daven 10]

Does the processing of the meat make the haem (the natural thing in the meat that makes it red) more biologically available perhaps?

Haem is known to be metabolised by the body in a way that produces small quantities of harmful chemicals. Hence why red meat is 'bad' for you and white meat isn't.

 

You mean blood ?

[davyboy 17]

As Nick Robinson pointed out a meat tax won't affect the well off, just those that can only afford the processed meat.

[truman 10]

As Nick Robinson pointed out a meat tax won't affect the well off, just those that can only afford the processed meat.

 

[devil's advocate] what if it affects the poorer in a good way?[/devil's advocate]

[Cyclone 10]

You mean blood ?

 

No, I mean haem.

 

haem

/hiːm/Submit

nounBIOCHEMISTRY

an iron-containing compound of the porphyrin class which forms the non-protein part of haemoglobin and some other biological molecules.

 

---------- Post added 07-11-2018 at 10:14 ----------

 

You mean blood ?

 

Did you imagine that chickens didn't contain blood? And that's why their meat is white instead of red?

[El Cid 210]

Lets tax all meat, do it slowly, tax processed food too. Other countries tax food.

[Chelle-82 10]

No, I mean haem.

 

 

---------- Post added 07-11-2018 at 10:14 ----------

 

 

Did you imagine that chickens didn't contain blood? And that's why their meat is white instead of red?

 

OMG i totally thought they had white blood!!

 

---------- Post added 07-11-2018 at 10:57 ----------

 

It's a good thing to tax processed meat, it's a good thing to tax meat full stop!

 

I'm a vegie sooo i'm obvs going to agree with it.

[RollingJ 1,981]

I'm confused The majority of people on this forum seem to resent paying tax, and yet they also seem to want to tax food?

 

I appreciate they dress this up as 'protecting' us from perceived harm, but I read it as hipocracy - have we got to be spoon-fed and wrapped in cotton wool, or do we have freedom of thought and action?

Taxing everything to the hilt just makes life even more difficult to live.

[Cyclone 10]

Just reading about why some meat is red and other meat white, it's to do with the presence of myoglobin (which is what contains the haem molecule). The more myoglobin, the redder the meat.

Typically slow twitch muscles will contain more myoglobin.

 

So, anyway, processed meat. If you have a turkey sausage, apart from tasting bad, is it actually more harmful than having a turkey breast fillet? Is it less harmful than a pork sausage? How exactly does being processed make meat more harmful, I was only speculating about the bioavailability of haem.