Translation please from ad speak to english

[griz]

Watching NASCAR and they mentioned that Smithfield donated some large amount of protein to hurricane relief.  Not meat, not pork, but protein.  I'm thankful for any useful donation, but does anybody know what that means exactly?

[MillCreek]

[Fly320s]

I think McDonalds won that lawsuit.

As to the original question, Smithfield mainly produces pork products, but they also have some chicken products.  Anyway, "protein" is the current buzzword du jour.  It started in the restaurant industry and has spread out to the mainstream.

[griz]

So it's just a buzzword to avoid saying the word meat?  I guess if they slipped a soybean in there somewhere they could honestly assure PETA that meat isn't the only thing they offer.

[Hawkmoon]

As to the original question, Smithfield mainly produces pork products, but they also have some chicken products.  Anyway, "protein" is the current buzzword du jour.  It started in the restaurant industry and has spread out to the mainstream.

Those devious, scurrilous bastards!

So they donate pork products, disguised under the moniker "protein." Any Muslims in the receiving line either can't eat the stuff, or if they eat it they've sold their souls. The whole donation is obviously an anti-Muslim plot!

[Ben]

I only knew this started in the restaurant industry because of my embarrassing guilty pleasure of watching Gordon Ramsey yell at people.

I do now wonder though, if it was started just to sound fancy or to avoid damaging the precious sensibilities of the "clientele" at fancy restaurants who don't want to know where their "protein" comes from. 

[freakazoid]

Maybe they actually just meant protein?

[Hawkmoon]

I do now wonder though, if it was started just to sound fancy or to avoid damaging the precious sensibilities of the "clientele" at fancy restaurants who don't want to know where their "protein" comes from. 

Not just fancy restaurants.

If you say you're serving "chicken," you pretty much have to serve chicken. If you say you're serving white meat chicken, you'd better serve white meat chicken, and nothing else. Just about anything that comes from a mammalian critter constitutes "protein," though, so by calling it "protein" you can include all kinds of stuff that most people wouldn't ever want to ingest.

[Brad Johnson]

Meal replacement mix (AKA Ensure, Muscle Milk, protein "bulking powder", etc.). Likely some form of soy or whey protein.

Brad

[lee n. field]

I guess technically, the Fancy Feast cat paste our feline freeloaders consume would count as "protein".

[Regolith]

Meal replacement mix (AKA Ensure, Muscle Milk, protein "bulking powder", etc.). Likely some form of soy or whey protein.

Brad

Could be peanut-based, as well. Peanut butter/peanut-butter-like-substances are often used for treating emergency malnutrition cases in disaster areas and third world countries.

E.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy'nut

[230RN]

I usually inject "Protein is protein" whenever the discussion turns to survival foods.

[mtnbkr]

When I see "protein" on menus in restaurants, it's typically shorthand for your choice of any meat or meat substitute they offer.

For example, at Noodles & Co, you can get your noodles without protein or with.  There, Protein is chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, and tofu.  

It's not some nefarious plot to get us all eating soylent green.

Chris

[K Frame]

"It's not some nefarious plot to get us all eating soylent green."

But I LIKE their soylent teriyaki bowl!