The general consensus seems to be the same with everyone I asked – if the pad is broken or pierced in any way, sadly yes you should throw your meal out. They are not digestible, which means that even if you ate one it would go right through your digestive tract ()īut what about when they are cooked over heat, does that change things? They explained that the fact they are approved for use in contact with food that is intended for consumption, means that have to be of a food safe quality, so are non toxic. The butchers that I spoke to explained that the filling of these packets are usually paper pulp, plant fibers or non toxic silicone. The fact they are often black to begin with or soaked red with blood means that it’s easier than you may think to tip your raw meat into your slow cooker from the tray without realising you have tipped this in also. It also helps prevent meat from sitting in a pool of raw meat juices that could bread bacteria and reduce shelf life.

The purpose of the pad is to catch and absorb the liquid that naturally drains from raw meat and would otherwise pool in your meat tray and potentially spill out on you when it was tilted. They are essentially an absorbent pad with an often plastic type of cover. So our goal today was to get to the bottom of it and what it means for you and your pot full of otherwise yummy slow cooked food.Ībsorbent meat pads or absorbent meat soakers are the little package that often sits between your raw meat and your butchers tray. The absorbent pad from under your raw meat has accidentally ended up in your slow cooker – and *gasp* – you’ve cooked it!!Īt least a few times a week we see a member of our FB group desperately looking for advice on what to do when they realise they’ve done this. You have made a lovely slow cooker meal and you are just giving it a little stir before you serve it, when it appears… That awful moment when you first spot it…

I accidentally cooked the meat pad