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Subscribe to RSSRep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, calls for outright ban of "pink slime" after the USDA offers schools the opportunity to opt-out of serving it.
Updated March 9: An online petition urging the government to stop the use of "pink slime" -- the scrape and waste meat products that are treated with ammonium-hydroxide -- in school food has collected almost 20,000 signatures over the last several days.
After reports that school districts around the country were serving kids hamburgers containing up to 15 percent of the processed product known in the meat industry as "Lean Finely Textured Beef', parents and consumers poured online to express their disgust. As of Friday afternoon "pink slime" became the most searched phrase on Google Trends and Twitter users were expressing their disgust on #pinkslime.
@mz_gael tweeted, "i don't know when i'll be able to eat hamburger again."
Danielle @danzerotti, a self-described "happily married mother of 4, tweeted "Another reason my 4 kids should be glad that I take the time to prepare their lunches at home every day. As much as I complain."
"Pink slime" is bits of meat and muscle salvaged from slaughterhouse floors that are treated with a pink chemical to kill any dangerous pathogens. According to an earlier report by msnbc.com, the unappetizing pink goo is widely used in the food industry as an anti-microbial agent in meats and as a leavener in bread and cake products. It's regulated by the U.S. Agriculture Department, which classifies it as "generally recognized as safe." Nevertheless, McDonald's, have said they are pulling the infamous "pink slime" from their hamburgers.
Although the chemical has been used in ground beef products sold commercially since the 1990s, the sudden concern erupted this week over the USDA's plans to ship 7 million pounds of the processed meat product to schools all over the country. School cafeterias nationwide receive part of the ground beef they serve from the USDA.
The USDA's continued purchase of pink slime for school lunches was first reported Monday by TheDaily.com, which spoke to two former microbiologists at the Food Safety Inspection Service.
"We don't know which districts are receiving what meat, and this meat isn't labeled to show pink slime. They don't have to under federal law," said Bettina Siegal, of TheLunchTray.com earlier this week. Siegal started the petition seeking to ban the ammonia-based waste from school menus. "We should step back and say, 'Why would we feed this to our kid?" said Siegal.
When asked whether the USDA would consider banning "pink slime" from school meat shipments, spokesman Michael Jarvis responded via email: “All USDA ground beef purchases for the National School Lunch Program must meet the highest standards for food safety. This includes stringent pathogen testing and compliance with all applicable food safety regulations. USDA has strengthened ground beef food safety standards in recent years and only allows products into commerce - and especially into schools -- that we have confidence are safe.”
New York nutritionist and msnbc.com contributor Elisa Zied (@elisazied ) said,"people have a right to know what exactly is in their food, so they can make a judgment whether to eat it or not," but shouldn't panic the meat was unsafe just because of the "yuk" factor. "Like with all food, this idea of pink slime in ground beef does speak to the fact that we need to mix up the foods we consume from all the basic food groups to minimize potentially harmful ingredients and maximize nutrient intake," said Zied.
The processed meat reportedly accounts for 70 percent of all ground beef consumed in the U.S.
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No need for us to go to war to die when American companies are already busy killing us.
Parents really need to pay attention to what their kids are being fed. If I had kids, I'd pack their lunch each day. Don't expect the government to take care of this. Its going to take action from parents to change what goes on at schools.
I have a question for those of you that think parents that don't or can't pack their kids lunches. Do you think that all the kids are eating for free? I, for one, have to pay for my high-schooler, at his request, to eat at school. And it's not all that cheap because my family doesn't qualify for a discount. That said, I don't want to be paying for pink slime. Fortunately, my son doesn't eat beef and our local school have really good, healthy lunches with fruits & veggies supplied by local farmers. I would eat the food myself any day. Please get off your high horses people.
heres a funny scarry tidbit about food safety in schools,,, here on hawaii the schools cafeterias cant serve what the kids grow in the school garden because they are not food safe certified,,, hows that for ridiculous,,,
Just like in Az how we can't allow foodbank volunteers to come through the fields/groves after the harvest and glean
My children have eaten their last school bought lunch. I am completely disgusted by what we let happen in this country. Shame on the USDA/government for allowing it; shame on the slaughter-houses for using the waste products from the floor. Ewww.
That is one of the most disgusting things I have ever read! Now I know why I hate frozen, packaged hamburger patties, meatballs, etc. I'd rather eat nothing than those things.
And to think, I was actually thinking of treating my kids to McDonalds this weekend. YUCK!
Is it any f$%#king wonder that we have what could well be considered "epidemics" in obesity, asthma, heart disease, kidney disease, and others? Has anybody thought about all that crap they put in our "food"???
It seems the "food" industry can process a turd and then sell it to us as "food" - and no one is the wiser to their ways - as long as they bought off the watch dogs.
Oh yeah - and to the MORON who calls parents lazy because their kids buy school lunches:
First of all, I give mine the choice. My daughter refuses to buy a school lunch so I pack her one every day. My son actually likes some of the stuff they serve, so he buys maybe a couple of times a week. Am I lazy because I let him buy lunch because he wants to?? I think not!! Thank goodness though, he says their hamburgers are gross so he doesn't buy those! You can go stuff yourself with pink slime.
One way or the other, I've bought my last ground beef.
.
If they're eating it in schools and 70% of ground beef is made up of waste meat you can be assured you've been eating it all along, too.
Yup, you can use Pink Slime and still call your meat "100% beef."
And it's cheap and plentiful.
So of course any organization or business ANYWHERE that needs to save money will buy the cheapest "100% ground beef" they can find. Since it's not labeled as chemically treated scrap meat, people will assume it's just as good as the more expensive ground beef.
In fact, there's nothing stopping the people who sell the more expensive ground beef from adding Pink Slime as filler. It helps increase the profit margin!
I'd assume -- probably naively -- that ground beef specifically labeled as coming from a specific cut of meat can't add Slime and still be following the labeling laws.
Let's stop the nonsence and stop feeding everybody this junk. It's not something we should be eating, period!
Today's food is safer and cleaner than ever before because technologies like the stuff people call pink slime is preventing the development of pathogens in food. Why is that, if someone pretends they are an expert and makes a scene, others want to follow instead of think for themselves......that is until someone suggest that kids are failing in school because parents aren't taking time to work with them.
It reminds of a song in the South Park movie. The parents sing, "Our kids are getting out of hand. So, blame Canada, before someone thinks to start blaming USSSSSSSS!"
READ Making super safe! We dont have to take this any more! I am feeling better about what i put on my plate or glass. educate your self about how safe your food is. Thanks.
I really know it's unsafe when they hide behind their regulations that are written by industry.
School lunches are a disgrace; primarily full of fat, salt, and empty carbs. The government allows crap to be sold to the school lunch program at a big profit to some corporation at the expense of kids' health. No wonder we have so many fat, sluggish kids. Some poor kids get 3 crap meals per day. Ever watch how chicken nuggets are made? You would hurl.
Ewwww, is all I have to say. I would NEVER allow my kid to eat that.
I homeschool my kids, but I went to public school and rarely ate school lunch. We brought our own lunch!
No no no!
"the unappetizing pink goo is widely used in the food industry as an anti-microbial agent in meats and as a leavener in bread and cake products."
The original article is incorrect. They are still talking about ammonia. The leavener is ammonium carbonate, rotting salt. Forget about ammonia, it's everywhere. It's harmless in the concentrations we are discussing here.
Also,I doubt the meat is allowed to touch the floor, as the article claims.
BS
Meat is allowed to touch the floor and if it is immediately picked up (i.e. not stepped on) it can be rinsed and sanitized for consumption. However this is rare (think about how often you drop food on the floor, I bet its not 6 times a day) and if its not a large piece (typically over a pound) the workers don't really care to pick it up. It will get swept into the "inedible buckets". Also, honestly the floor in a fabrication area is actually quite clean as it is rinsed with 180 degree water before the start of and at the end of every shift. then it is sanitized (2x) and everyone who enters has on rubber boots that have also been sanitized as the workers walk in. I would estimate that in a big plant (2-3,000 carcasses a day, 600-900 lbs each) maybe 50 lbs are retrieved from the floor. And again, they then must be sanitized before coming into contact with any other meat product. I would eat it, that's why humans have invented cooking. As long as you're not eating it raw its fine.
The rest of your comment is spot-on though. I tried to find how to get in touch with this author to scold her for using excatly zero research or fact in this article and being deliberately incindiary and misleading, but obviously they don't post contact information. Shameful
Does it react to emotions like in Ghostbusters 2? If so, we should be really worried. :)
That is why we are finding this out now. It was hidden from you before. Under the Obama admin, these things can no longer be hidden, as they were under Bush/Cheney. Bush made them reword documents to refect what he thought the public wanted to see, but it did not reflect reality.
I am so thankful my kids do not eat public school meals. The companies with those contracts should be cancelled and schools should have gardens and chickens in the yards. Kids should be a part of growing what they eat. It should be worked into the cirriculum.
At very least this author should be ashamed that she is such an embarrassment to her field. At worst she should be fired on the spot for such absolute @!$%# work. This article would be lucky to get a D in any freshman level community college journalism class as it is complete garbage.
Just to point out a couple things: This author is completely incorrect about most of the things written or they are so vague and misleading they just allow you to come to your own incorrect conclusion. Did anyone notice how the sources cited were a terribly misleading video. No, Jamie Oliver, clearly you've never heard of an anatomy class since you seem to think the visceral cavity of a creature contains no organs, just food and microbes falling directly into a pit that is the abdomen. Idiot. Also the cuts that he says are put into trim because it lines the visceral cavity? Lets think of the cuts that come from there in a beef animal, shall we? Hmm well that's BBQ ribs, short ribs, tenderloin (filet mignon), t-bone, porterhouse, flank steak, sirloin, tri-tip, skirt steak, just to name a few, also known as some of the most expensive and desireable cuts on the animal. As someone who calls themselves a chef you would think he would know that. so no, these areas are not inherently contaminated.
Also the quotes they have are from some mommy blogger (not sure what her food safety credentials are, fairly sure its not a doctoral degree like most food safety inspectors from the USDA), a chef who apparently has never seen a beef carcass. These people both seem up in arms. However the two people they spoke to who have any actual knowledge or authority on the situation (a USDA spokesperson and MSNBC's very own nutrition expert) both seem to say "Yeah, we know about it, its fine for you.". In fact if you look through the article they don't seem to have one source or case to sight where this product was responsible for any harm done to any person as a result of this product. The big concern is that it looks gross. And yes, it does, but no more gross than anything else that goes into school lunches.
Bottom line, if you don't like it, buy beef ground at the grocery store. If you don't like your kid eating it, pack their lunches. If you're not allowed to at the kid's school get some other concerned parents and threaten to sue (schools will back down, its cheaper that way and they have no money) or get someone that's a doctor to say your child is on a special diet (or forge a note that says that, the school isn't going to look into it).
This is absolute bull@!$%#, irresponsible journalism at its worst and it stands behind 0 facts ( but to be fair, research is hard and no one ever said in journalism school that you might need to research things...) and is only serving to get people riled up for no reason.
I think that what this whole thing proves is how easily manipulated the American public and "media" have become. All someone has to do is coin an emotive term for something that people don't really understand and bam! a controversy erupts. For instance, when I ask most people if they would be willing to eat "cloned fruit" they say, "NO!" The truth is that almost all fruit crops are technically "cloned" because they are grown from cuttings or grafted buds, not seeds. They have been for thousands of years. It just sounds scary stated that way. Someone could do the same sort of manipulation by saying that Oraganic food is grown in "processed animal feces." That would sound terrible while "compost" sounds great even though it is most often, "processed animal feces."
Unfortunately our educational system or life experience gives most people little defense against manipulation with emotive language.
I think I'm gonna go hurl now.
The chemical has been used in ground beef products sold commercially since the 1990s. Blame this on all of the following:
George Bush (1989-1993) Bill Clinton (1993-2001) George W. Bush (2001-2009)
Barack Obama (2009-present)
Wait just one stinkin' minute here! If it's been happening across all those administrations how do we squawk like a bunch of angry chickens about how its the fault of THEM?! You'll have to excuse me, as my world is falling apart due to my having to use reason and research to find the root cause of something...