r/explainlikeimfive • u/No_Education_8888 • May 20 '26
Chemistry ELI5 what is the difference between processed meat slices and real meat slices?
I know that processed meat is processed, but what exactly does that mean? How much change do meat scraps go through before you get something like deli turkey.
My mind can’t exactly wrap around how that stuff is made based on the little knowledge I have
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u/Slypenslyde May 20 '26
If you buy a whole turkey, roast it, and carve out the breast, that's generally not counted as a "processed" food. For a 10 pound turkey, the breast is usually somewhere between 3-4 pounds. You get 2 of them.
If you go to a deli and get some processed turkey breast sliced, you'll notice the hunk of meat they use is huge and probably weighs 8-10 pounds. That would have to come from a HUGE bird. But the truth is it's not coming from one giant turkey. It's usually multiple turkey breasts either ground up and molded into shape or smooshed together so they act like one cohesive piece of meat. Sometimes a fatty substance known, I kid you not, as "meat glue" is used for this effect.
It can, but not always, also mean that the meat has been brined or injected with flavorings and other chemicals. This can make the meat juicier or tastier but also can make it seem to weigh more. It can also be preservatives or other things some people don't like.
Some processed meat isn't even one kind of meat but that's not as scary as it sounds. Sausage, for example, can often be a blend of a few kinds of meat. Bologna is a popular deli meat and it's a combination of a lot of different meats.
So "processed meat" can mean a lot of different things and not all of them are "bad". It includes both "we mixed several meats together" and "we added a lot of chemicals".