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Nati Harnik / AP file
A sample of lean finely textured beef, also known as 'pink slime,' is displayed at the Beef Products Inc. plant in South Sioux City, Neb., where the product is made. USDA officials say several meat producers have asked to indicate use of the product on package labels.
As consumers clamor for more transparency about the beef product dubbed “pink slime,” federal agriculture officials have agreed to allow several meat producers to list the stuff on package labels.
That means grocery shoppers soon could know whether some packages of ground beef contain the ammonia-treated meat that has been at the heart of a controversy that has shuttered plants, scuttled jobs and sparked uproar over the contents of the nation’s hamburgers.
Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food safety branch, said Tuesday he could not identify the firms that sought labeling changes, or even say how many were involved. He only confirmed that the agency has received voluntary requests from beef firms to change their labels to indicate it contains lean finely textured beef, or LFTB.
“We’ve determined that such requests will be approved,” Fillpot said.
At least one big beef maker, Cargill Inc., said that firm officials had requested the labeling changes, in part to address the groundswell of consumer concerns.
“Voluntary labeling is one of the options we are looking at, although no final decision has been made to do this,” said Mike Martin, a Cargill spokesman. “We will also be working with our customers to gather their input to collectively reach mutually acceptable options.”
One advocate who helped launched the controversy said it’s about time consumers' wishes were considered.
“If the product had been labeled from the start, I doubt we’d see anything like the consumer backlash that the media has stirred up in the past few weeks,” said Bettina Elias Siegel, author of the blog “The Lunch Tray,” which helped force agriculture officials to allow schools to opt out of using the beef byproduct in school lunches.
At the heart of the controversy has been the use of an estimated 700 million to 800 million pounds of LFTB, which is added to about 10 billion pounds of ground beef consumed in the U.S. each year, according to the American Meat Institute.
It consists of lean beef carcass trimmings, which have been separated from fat and treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill harmful bacteria such as E. coli O157 and salmonella, before being ground, compressed into blocks and quick-frozen. Cargill treats LFTB differently, using citric acid to change the acidity of the beef to make it inhospitable to pathogens.
Beef Products Inc., the South Dakota firm whose founder, Eldon Roth, created and patented the ammonia process, provided msnbc.com with records that they said showed that raising the pH of the beef from about 5.7, its natural level, to a pH of 8.5 reduces E. coli to undetectable levels.
But the product was dubbed “pink slime” in a 2002 email by a USDA microbiologist who found it distasteful. Concern was raised again recently when celebrity chef Jamie Oliver campaigned against the product being served in school lunches.
Combined with Siegel's quest to get the product out of schools, the current controversy led big U.S. supermarkets, including Safeway Inc., Kroger Co. and Supervalu Inc. to pledge to stop using the products.
It forced BPI to halt production at some of its plants last week, and this week forced another processor, AFA Foods, into bankruptcy.
That’s despite protests from governors of beef-producing states who say the LFTB has been maligned, and top food safety experts, who say that BPI’s product is safe.
“I think their process was validated pretty well,” said Gary Acuff, a microbiologist and director of the Center for Food Safety for Texas A&M college of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Some experts, such as Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a professor at the University of Minnesota, say LFTB may actually make ground beef a little better.
“If 750,000,000 pounds of relatively safe protein is going into hamburger, it’s got to beat having the same amount of raw product going in,” Osterholm said in an email to msnbc.com.
Much of the contention in scientific circles has centered on whether the ammonia-treated product should actually be considered meat, or whether it should be considered and identified as an additive, said Randall K. Phebus, a professor of food safety and defense at the Food Science Institute at Kansas State University.
Others have urged that labeling products with LFTB should be mandatory. It's not clear whether voluntary measures would provide consumers with adequate information, because some companies might choose to label their products while others would not, some experts suggested. The USDA agreement was first reported on the meat industry online site Meatingplace.com.
Fillpot, of the USDA, said he couldn’t discuss whether the agency was considering making it a requirement. Beef producers who received USDA approval could start changing the labels immediately, agency officials said.
Industry and government leaders have an obligation to help families make informed choices, said Arthur Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and a contributor to msnbc.com.
"If consumers want to know information about the food they or their children eat, then manufacturers and grocers ought to find ways to get that information to them," he said, noting it could come through labels, websites, toll-free numbers, pamphlets or even signs at stores. "I believe there is a fundamental right to know all you wish to know about what you eat."
The solution to current crisis will require extraordinary levels of transparency, noted both Bill Marler, a Seattle food safety lawyer, and Doug Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University. Both have urged BPI and others to be as public as possible with their processes, even posting data online that describe how food is processed, produced and handled and the results of safety tests.
On Tuesday, BPI officials appeared to agree with at least part of that, saying that the voluntary labeling change could help rehabilitate the industry’s beleaguered image.
“[It] will be an important first step in restoring consumer confidence in their ground beef,” BPI spokesman Craig Letch wrote in an email to msnbc.com.
Taste tests consistently show that consumers prefer hamburger that contains BPI’s treated product, Letch added.
“We feel this development will allow more customers to provide options to consumers and pave the way for BPI’s lean beef to reestablish its place in the market.”
Related stories:
'Pink slime' panic grows online: Are we overreacting?
McDonald's drops use of gooey 'pink slime' in hamburger meat
Leave a Comment:
Schools might want to take hamburger out of the lunchroom altogether, pink slime or not! and
I doubt any parent would stand for schools feeding their kids canned dog food and that is exactly where these trimmings went before a corrupt government official allowed the processed scraps to be called beef.
so, the label is still not required. I wonder how much money these meat producers spent on bribes.
Now that Cargill has legitimized Soylent Pink, their next food product is going to be Soylent Green.
fool, if it comes off the carcass of a cow its beef.
And you are a fool if you like eating dog food
trent
So does the sh@t stains around it's a@s. Should that be included too?
so if it comes from a cow its beef so go ahead eat a product that has to be fumigated with deadly ammonia gas just to make it edible your government is
concerned for your health you are a moron of the highest order they would wrap up feces and sell it if they thought they could get the smell out of it and you would be there like some dumbass oh they say its safe that's goods enough for me
Pink slime is gross but it's still beef. The chemicals they use to create it I'm not so sure about. My problem is that we have crucified the makers of pink slime and a label will be put on products to alert buyers that pink slime was used in it's making but why don't we get this type of reaction from the genetically modified (GM) crowd?? GM foods are much scarier in that they are effecting far more than just the crops.
What kinds of chemical reactions occur when meat is exposed to ammonium hydroxide? I don't know and I object to having the stuff put in my food on the sly.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/08/whistleblowers-70-percent-of-u-s-ground-beef-contains-pink-slime/
As gross as it sounds, I guess we like it. Maybe it's an acquired taste.
I think the whole thing had been blown out of proportion. The "chemical" used to treat the food is in A LOT of stuff we already eat like bread, fresh fruits and vegetables. It's a common way to disinfect our food, which is necessary considering how few of us get our foods direct from the farm. The reason the meat in question was used in dog food previously was because they didn't have a process to remove the fat from the trimmings without cooking the meat to render it previously.
There are far worse "additives" in our food than this stuff. Frankly the only reason people are upset about it is because they are calling it slime. Who wants to eat slime? But after seeing it, it really doesn't look any slimier than regular ground beef.
There are people starving in this world. That is fact. There is a global food shortage. This is another fact. The price of meat is climbing steadily because of increased global demand. Fact #3.
Has there been any confirmed case of anyone getting sick from consuming it? No. In fact it's probably safer to eat than traditional ground beef because the e-coli has been killed.
So what are we left with? The media whipping us into a frenzy over a safe, nutritious source of protein when there are literally millions of people in this world who gladly eat this stuff straight, let alone mixed in with regular ground beef at a ratio of 93% traditional ground beef / 7% finely textured ground beef.
If you are so grossed out you don't want to eat this, I'd hate to tell you what's in your other food.
For example there are allowed to be 20 maggots of any size in 100 grams of strained mushrooms.
Apples are allowed to have up to 12% mold.
The FDA allows one rodent hair per 100 grams of peanut butter.
They will only allow 15 fruite fly eggs and a few maggots per 100 grams of tomato sauce.
The FDA looks the other way if there are less than 40 corn lice per 100 grams of asparagus.
Cockroaches feed on spices, so they poop in spices too. And if they die in spices, they leave their body parts behind. 325 insect fragments per 10 grams of ground thyme are allowed.
Sodium Bisulfite makes up approximately 50% of your toilet bowl cleaner and is also put in potato chips and dried foods.
Shellac is made from beetle secretions and used to make the red dye in shiny candy like Skittles.
Carmine is a dye made from crushed and boiled bugs. They actually call it "Natural # 4." It's used to make the red coloring in yogurt and fruit juices.
And there's a lot more. If you stopped eating everything that had something gross in it you'd have to move to a farm or starve.
None of you know what your talking about. I work for a processor that supplies product for LFTB. This is the trim that we cut off your steaks so that they look pretty in the meat counter. These are the same fat trimings that are used to make your lipstick and shortenings in your foods. Now we'll just turn around and sell it to synthetic fuel manufacturers for conversion to biofuels.
Meanwhile, your going to be wondering why the only ground beef over 80% lean that you can find is labeled "sirloin" and "round" for which you pay a premium.
Worried about the ammonia compounds, then better drop the following out of your diet: dairy products, confections, fruits and vegetables, baked goods, breakfast cereals, eggs, fish, beverages such as sports drinks and beer, and meats.
Stop buying into what the mass and social medias are trying to convince you of and educate yourself. They are more often wrong than they are right. Here's a good place to start.
The government can put out all the media hype they want. My dog was started on a semi raw diet from the time she was a puppy. I always mixed raw hamburger into her kibble. Suddenly out of the blue she began to refuse raw burger, now I know why. The dog is smarter than the government lackys.
the FDA, has known about, approved, encouraged and hidden the facts from the public for over 20 years; we are getting fatter; of course, we are eating re-processed fat, and the Government encouraged it, what else are they allowing in our food !
@xinatheawesome AGREED!!!
Educate yourselves people! Just because it's on the news doesn't mean it's true or they have ALL THE FACTS. If you knew what all products amonia hydroxide was in you wouldn't eat any processed foods.... pudding cups? How many of you put those in your kids' lunches?
1.6 oz of ground beef, contains approx 1.6 oz, or 20 mg, or 200 part per million while the bun you eat it on has twice that and the cheese.... 4 times!
It makes ground beef safer and this 'movement' will only make beef costs higher and has already put thousands out of their jobs. Way to go!
If this label becomse required, you bet, I'll be looking for the one that contains LFTB.
Ammonia does not come from the carcass of a cow.
Xina and Not Scared....you are absolutely right. The American public has this distorted vision of what goes into food, like ground beef is actually ground sirloin...why would you grind it into ground beef for $4 per pound if you could sell it as steak for $8 per pound? And of course, the apples that go into apple sauce were picked off the tree, not the ground, and had no bruises or bug infestations...only the finest beans go into refried beans, the finest cranberries into cranberry jelly. Meanwhile, parents let their kids pick their noses or sneeze before they touch everything from food to door handles, and who's protesting that?
Ammonia Hydroxide is found in Beer, bacon, baked goods, jam, sports drinks, and even dairy products. Many of these foods have more ammonium in them than the beef. Yet, the traces are still so small, companies aren't even required to list it on the label.
Ammonium hydroxide is also naturally occurring in the environment. It can be found in fruits and veggies, and even you.
If it's really the ammonia that's bugging you, here's a complete list of all the foods you'll have to avoid.
www.codexalimentarius.net/gsfaonline/additives/details.html?id=380
When I make hamburgers, I mix the ground beef with seasonings, so that the flavors will be throughout the beef. When I get done doing this and my hands are covered with a disgusting pink hued, slimey goo with the consistancy of crisco.... I am not interested in cooking or consuming those burgers. I want hamburger with no additives other than what I put in, from cows that are also raised hormone-free. I will pay more for beef that is hormone and additive free, although I think it is wrong; does it bother anyone else that you have to pay MORE for beef that contains LESS?
blondeness - the reason you pay more for those types of beef, organic, hormone free etc. is because the cows they come from do not grow as large and so contain less muscle and the yeild of beef they provide is less. Less meat per cow means less supply to meet demand. This raises the prices. This is why organic food cost more in general. If organic farming practices could yeild higher amounts of food, you would see prices drop and more farmers take up those methods.
Just because we can fake-out bacteria does not mean we should. DON'T FEED US THE CRAPPY PARTS OF THE COWS DUMBSSSSSS
This isn't about the fat content, or the type of meat used. It's about the Ammonium hydroxide added to kill bacteria. So, let's take it out and then sit back and watch all the men, women and children suffer the effects of salmonella, e-choli and other bacterial pathogens that creep back into our meats. You all should be happy then, since the evil NH4OH will be gone. All you have left to worry about, are the other 699 food additives still existing in your food supply, including these ammoniated ones:
Add to these, Borax, Boric Acid, Calcium ferrocyanide, Chlorine, Devil's Claw, Formaldehyde, Formic acid (the stuff some ants use as a weapon), Hemlock oil, Hydrochloric acid and Potassium ferrocyanide. Yummy!
There's an old Pharmacist's adage. The poison is in the dose. Relax, there isn't that much NH4OH in your meat, so fire up the grill and have a burger. It's ok.
This is much ado about nothing. Processed food is processed food and it is sold with enhanced flavors, salt, sugar, preservatives to attract customers who buy it. Hot dogs, tatter tots, chicken nuggets, corn puffs, corn chips, sodas, cheese whiz are just examples of using base food elements: proteins, starches, fats and reconfiguring them into marketable products.
The best thing this country did was require ingredients on the labels. Be informed and choose wisely. But don't over react to media hype with no scientific substance.
Wow! You should be the poster boy for the TOXIC BEEF producers! I can see you with a white lab coat and all the chemical safety googles and gloves poring the poison on a batch of meat while telling us is ok to eat it!
What part of WE THE PEOPLE decide what we eat don't you understand? For the amount of meat most american families eat per year the doses of TOXIC BEEF POISON consumed is astronomical.... Should we send you the hospital bill for all the people that get sick every year from eating that poison? The problem is not with the beef itself but rather the distribution system. Selfish and greedy companies who are set to drive small cattle farmers out of business engage in mass production schemes whick include making people eat brains, guts, hoofs, skin, and all the other organs that are considered garbage. Instead of using it for animal feed, because of their greed they force the FDA to approve their garbage to dilute the meat to increase profits.
All you have to do is watch FOOD INC and see how McDonalds have corrupted the meat industry with their greed. The problem is not the beff, it is the greedy meat producers. People are voting with their dollars and they will continue to do so. While I know it will be nearly impossible, I would rather see small beef producers to dominate the beef market and not the big greedy TOXIC BEEF mass producers.
Subpilot - go ahead and send me the bills for all the people over the last 20 years who got sick by eating "pink slime" If I paid them all and made a $5 donation to the hospital I'd have spent $5.
If anyone had gotten ill from it, don't you think that would have made the media attempt to villanize the product? Or are you talking about all the people who have gotten sick from eating ground beef in general? Because then we'd be talking about some serious cash. Though that is mainly due to E-coli which is inactivated in the product we are discussing.
And you're right, people do vote with their dollars and no one is willing to pay $10 a pound for ground beef.
Yes, by all means let's kill the "pink slime"! Keep your damned government hands off my E. coli and salmonella. Who cares if it works?!? It's got an awful nickname and should be soundly condemned for it.
Geniuses.
I stopped eating beef for more then 10 years now. About 10 years ago i noticed the quality of the meat was not the same. The meat tasted different and i noticed a huge change in the look and feel of the beef. Not to mention how the beef started making me feel after i ate it. Several years ago i started seeing the same thing with chicken. I started to notice the color and look of the meat was changing i also noticed 90% of chicken companies started adding broth and additives to give the chicken more flavor since the chicken is raised differently now then it was before. I since then i have been only buying organic free range chicken from local farmers that allow the chicken to eat bugs etc and slightly supplement with organic feed. Ironically when i travel to 3rd world countries you can taste the quality of the meat and its fare superior to what we call food.
I refuse to buy beef tainted with this pink slime crap. The USDA says labels will tell you if the additive is included but be sure to take a magnifying glass to the store with you so you can read the fine print.
All vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians are laughing their @$$es off. Oh well, maybe next we'll find out that there are harmful chemicals/metals lurking in supplements. Then no one will be safe. Veggies are already subject to e.coli....
Yes, it does.
"Both ammonia and ammonium hydroxide are very common compounds, found naturally in the environment (in air, water, and soil) and in all plants and animals, including humans. Ammonia is a source of nitrogen, an essential element for plants and animals. Ammonia is also produced by the human body – by our organs and tissues and by beneficial bacteria living in our intestines."
http://www.foodinsight.org/Resources/Detail.aspx?topic=Questions_and_Answers_about_Ammonium_Hydroxide_Use_in_Food_Production
Xina the Awesome. Your grasp of the science and eloquent rebuttals are suberb. Keep up the good fight.
You bunch of dumb a$$es. What do you think is in Vienna sausage, potted meat, wieners, and bologna? Even some of you sausage has kidney, heart, brain, calf and hog tongue, do I need to go on? Nothing is wasted in the slaughter houses.
Solution: Mince your beef at home and don't be fooled by the processed-food manufacturers.
Better yet, considerably reduce your consumption of hamburger meat.
(floyd, what does Vienna sausage, et all, have to do with hamburger? The consumer wants just beef...not any by-products. If we want by-products, we'll buy sausage!)
I don't understand why some are getting upset because we, as consumers, want to know what's in our food! Some will clearly continue to eat beef no matter what's been done to it, and some will not.
It's our choice. Excuse me for wanting to know what's in the food I put in my mouth! Maybe, just maybe, once Americans are aware of all the ingredients in their food products, we'll change our eating habits (or, maybe not)! Either way, the choice should be left up to the ocnsumer, and not the manufacturer (because we know their only interest is in profits -- which is why this stuff is in your beef in the first place).
This "just shut up and buy it" attitude is offenseive. List what's on the label, and let the consumer decide.
I'm not worried about bacteria in my meat, because I cook my food completely. I don't want additives. I want my local grocer to carry more unprocessed foods and less garbage food.
Exactly! What do some of you have against FULL DISCLOSURE? I don't care how safe you think it is, I want to know. So should everyone. How can we make informed decisions about what we all eat if we don't even know what it is? Whoever likes the slime, have at it. Stop being parrots for the beef industry.
hakstarr - Talk to any immigrant and they'll tell you they had to "get used to" the food here. Every one of them says it doesn't have any taste or tastes gross. Especially the immigrants from third world countries. How is it that the richest country in the world has one of the worst food supplies? A number of posters above defend pink slime by listing all the other products that are contaminated with whatever. Is that supposed to make me think it's OK? Firstly, I already knew that stuff and was already concerned about it. I suppose we became the richest country by profiting off of each other by feeding each other sh*t and then having doctors rake in the dough when we get sick from it. But at least some executives at Cargill/ConAgra/Monsanto as well as the healthcare industry are laughing all the way to the bank. Maybe it'll "trickle down" to us if we support it loudly enough!
...and let me add this: A HS history teacher of mine, speaking of the US's war profiteering in WWI (before we entered and were neutral), joked that we would sell one side bullets and bombs and then turn around and sell the other side medical supplies in the aftermath. How much longer do you think the USA will be #1 if we cannibalize each other in a parallel fashion with the food industry/healthcare industry, especially if we allow that attitude and approach into other industries? Are some people here ready to say that since food additives have been introduced in the last half century, the rates of cancer and heart disease have remained unchanged? Let's stop rationalizing this pigsh*t before we become our own worst enemy.
Yes, be informed and make your own choices. But remember that just because you can't spell it or pronounce it doesn't make dangerous and just because it is fresh from the farm doesn't mean it is safe or healthy.
Salt is also known as sodium chloride. Sodium is dangerous and chlorine is poisonous. So, the misinformed may consider sodium chloride toxic instead of an essential element of human life.
Most of the lethal food contaminations of the past are from unprocessed foods. So, you have to choose your risks.
It very interesting to read this thread and note the difference between commentors who have an actual brain and do a little research on the subject, and the sheeple who react like Pavlov's dog whenever the lamestream media decrees that something is dangerous.
This has been overblown. The amount of ammonia is very low and only used to raise pH. Ammonia and compounds that contain it are naturally occurring and this isn't anything like a cap full of Drano in a cup of meat like people seem to think. That's no big deal in itself. The mechanically extracted beef isn't prime stuff, but it's still edible. I don't eat much beef anyway and prefer non-ground or non-processed products but it doesn't bother me that this is in most of the cheaper grinds I have eaten.
The whole argument should simply be about whether or not you want what is sausage grade meat mixed into your higher grade ground beef, period. It's put in there to keep the price down and increase profits. Not using it will slightly raise the costs you pay, but you get what you pay for. If you eat sausages or any processed meats at all, you already eat much worse stuff than LFTB. Nitrates and other additives are far worse on any scale you use than this stuff is, yet hardly anyone gets too worked up about those.
Look at the back of the products, I check the labels now, and a lot comes from China. The mfer's are trying to kill us. I buy from the local farmers now, and get my meat from the butcher. It cost a little more but it's worth it. Support your local farmer. The taste is so much better. I don't wan't any of my food coming from China.
Irrational hysteria among the frightened masses all because someone came up with the term "pink slime". It reminds be of a story regarding how tuna became popular. Back in the 20's or 30's the canned fish of choice was salmon. So somebody in advertising who was tasked with increasing the popularity of tuna came up the phrase "guaranteed not to turn pink in the can"
Well, the fact that salmon is naturally pink to begin with was irrelevant to the mindless minions. The end result was a decline in popularity of salmon in favor of tuna.
People are so easily led around by their collective noses.
Nikki - According to the USDA China is only allowed to export poultry to the United States, not beef.
This whole thing is idiotic!! It's over a name that some one created out of thin air. What's in sausage?" Think about head cheese, rocky mountain oysters, sweet breads marrow and every other beef biproduct we eat. Should we forget about kidneys, toes and tails, they are in there too. One way or another we eat the entire animal. The big bones go to the dogs the rest is ground up for numerous uses. One of which is calcium fillers another medicines. During the depression people lived on this stuff. The modern American attitude is if it doesn't look or sound good throw it away. And now there is actually a movement on to accomplish that goal while the rest of the world is starving. Unbelievable.
Zupercram - of course immigrants had to get used to our food, we're a diffrerent culture. Try going to Idia and see how their food agrees with you! Compared to real Indian Curry our food IS bland. What does that have to do with anything? The third world culturally tend to have highly spiced foods. South America, South Asia, Africa... think about the ethnic cuisines there for a moment, they aren't eating mac and cheese.
And no one is against full disclosure, we're against hte uninformed knee jerk reaction this story gets every time it is posted. This whole "did you hear about the pink slime? Ewww I don't want to eat that" nonsense is embarrassing to Americans who actually take the time to educate themselves about a process. There are bigger problems with our food than this. This story is one that diverts attention from real problems and makes us look like a herd of reactionary ignoramuses. Where is the outrage over BHA or BHT? Sodium Nitrite? Potassium Bromate? These are known carcinogens that are in our food. Pink Slime never hurt anyone. Focus on real problems.
I'm "outraged" about that, too, but pink slime isn't going to get a pass just because there are bigger problems. I addressed food additives as a whole in my posts above. There are bigger problems in the world than BHA, BHT etc., too.
Read the last sentence of hakstarr's post above. All of the same spices are available here as overseas, and they mostly cook their own food at home (just like most people). I'm not talking about what they think about McD's. Really, you should talk to a few immigrants about the quality of the milk, cheese, meat (base ingredients, not just spices) here compared to their home country. They will all tell you the same thing.
xina
Why hide it then? Some one said something about potted meat. Well go read what's in it. It says it right on the label. It doesn't just say "beef and/or chicken. It says what parts of them are in it. Why not label this on the packages too? As far as making someone sick or not. There is no proof either way. Out of the millions of pounds of ground beef recalls. Can you say for sure this stuff had nothing to do with them?
flnobody - well seeing as how those ground beef recalls were for Ecoli contamination and the "pink slime" has been decontaminated with Ammonia (which is the whole controversy BTW) I can reasonably deduce that the recalls had nothing to do with it.
And what do you want the label to say? "contains beef"? Because that's what it is. Decontaminated beef. It's not sirloin or chuck, because those are specific cuts. It's ground beef. ALL ground beef, whether decontaminated or not comes from the not so prime cuts of meat that are left over after the roasts and steaks are taken from the cow. All this is is salvaging the meat that's trimmed off the roast once it's made pretty as well. If you want everything that has trace amounts of ammonia to be labeled you will see that label on virtually all of your food. Including non-processed organic fruits and vegetables.
The reason why they are fighting the label is because the average American is too frickin stupid to realize there's nothing wrong with it.
It's amazing how quickely the USDA acts to label proccessed meats for pink slime yet fails to act after millions of consumers demand labeling of GMO's in our food. Why is that I wonder?
Xina the Awesome
That sounds awefully elitist and conceited.
But it's not just about the ammonia, there's also the scraping it up off the floor part.
What's with the name calling? "Stupid", "sheepie" -- really? Anger because these sheepie won't do what you want -- and just shut up and buy the stuff with no questions? Trust you, you say? We know what we're doing, you say? Americans are too stupid, you say to think for themselves, you say?
Read these posts. Amazing. This is what they think of the American consumer, folks. They love us as long as we keep opening our wallets with no questions asked. Start asking questions, and suddendly we go from being wonderful consumers to hysterical, stupid sheep -- incapable of thinking for ourselves.
Shhh -- listen. You can almost hear those CEOs crying behind closed doors. "What? No new Mercedes this year?", says the gold-digging, trophy wife as she packs her Gucci luggage in search of greener money, er I mean, pastures!
zina
How about what parts of beef? Just like the potted meat can has on it. It lists the parts that it is made from, right on the can. It's a small can too. So they shouldn't have a problem putting a label like that on a package of hamburger. When you bye ground chuck, you expect it to be ground chuck. Not ground butt, lips, and balls. What's that old saying? Truth in advertising! Lets start now.
What I do know is that much of the ground beef out there is different than it used to be. It has a smell and a taste that is 'off' much of the time. It has gotten to the point I won't buy meat from walmart (and other stores) because of it. I don't know what causes the taste and smell, but I know that something is off in the meat industry, and I am sick of being told there is nothing to worry about by people who don't know squat about it. We all deserve to know what we are eating.
The companies are asking permission to tell us on the label that this stuff is in there ? That is what it says in the article...Why do they have to get permission from the FDA or dept. of AG to tell us the ingredients ? Isn't it a friggin' law to tell us the ingredients anyway ? And why wouldn't the GOV not let them ? This just sounds Ass backwards to me..Seems like they would be fighting to not tell us....Or am I reading it backwards ?
I don't understand why some are getting upset because we, as consumers, want to know what's in our food!
Now days it is called crisis management. When you get caught doing something that gets you in trouble with the public instead of fixing the problem they run out and hire public relations people to make the 'problem" go away. These people hir Bots who go on the message boards with scripts to try and head off the injury that has happened. In this case it is simple to see through this one as the fact that the meat industry knew the consumer would not buy this crap so they hid the fact they were using it!
There are a couple of questions that remain. Now they want to label a few packages that contain the slime and what about the rest. Are we to assume the rest is not doctored with the dogfood or not. Price? Dont know about where you live but the price of ground meat in my area has gone through the roof in the last few years to close to 5 bucks a pound so that scare tactic of a price increase does not scare anyone.
Few years back I got queasy every time I ate in a burger joint. Couple of times I bought burger meat at home and got the same feeling I quit eating at burger shops started grinding my own meat as we all should and do not have that feeling anymore. Up to 15% of this stuff is allowed? Who regulates that fact. In essence the meat you are buying may be 50% this stuff or more as the inspectors we now have cannot keep up doing the basic stuff they need to do because of cuts in staffing so the idea of them ever getting around to your local supermarket is probably 1 in a million. All in all we were deceived taken for granted and got the let them eat cake routine by our suppliers and they should pay for it.
Label it and put in on the shelf, let consumers decided. If the cost is cheaper, people (me included) will eat beef with it. We've been eating it for over 10 years.
To be honest I'm more worry about the antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals that are used to make the beef, poultry, pork grow bigger and fatter.
And what about all the genetic engineering that's going on with our entire food source?
Saying we want to know about one substance in our food does not mean we don't want to know about the other. I want to know what's in everything I purchase to cook for my family. I don't understand how our government has let so many get away for so long with deceiving consumers . . . oh wait, lobbying, money, more lobbying, more money.
zupercram, you crack me up! You really want to know why we have what you call the "worst food supply"? Because of processed food, a far smaller percentage of US population goes hungry. Third world countries eat more natural foods, yes. They have meat fresh from the animal, veggies picked the day before, etc. They also don't have as much of it. Food grown like that does not grow in enough abundance to keep a population well fed. Those who do not live near the food source often go without, because there is no means of transporting the food to them. The reason we have processed food is to aid mass distribution. I actually did "lol" when I read your question. You need to read up a bit. Processed food is not the "worst food supply." It is the more abundant food supply, and a huge part of what keeps us from being a third world country.
Schools might want to take hamburger out of the lunchroom altogether, pink slime or not! alternet.org/environment/25122/?comments=view&cID=35161&pID=34156 and youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE
As a liberal, I'm torn.
On one hand, the stuff is horrible. They take unpalatable scraps, treat them with chemicals, and mix them with other meat so we can't tell.
On the other hand, I can't bear to see any part of the animal wasted. It seems disrespectful to just throw away edible portions. I could easily imagine the exact opposite article as most of the ones we've been seeing: "Tons of edible beef thrown away, shocking practices at slaughterhouses, simple process could render scraps edible -- why are we being wasteful?" Followed by tons of angry comments about the unscrupulous, unethical meat industry and how wasteful and callous they are.
Ever heard of dog food? These trimmings weren't being wasted. That is what this stuff was before the process was approved by a corrupt government official and the product considered beef, getting around regulations that would have required these idiots to put it on the label. At the end of the day, they broke the law sneaking this product into our food without labeling it and are now paying the price. Had the truth been known, there would not be the huge backlash now. Their dishonesty came back to bite them.
MSpielman, Even without this process, there wasnt waste. It is what they use to make dog food out of. You go ahead and eat this crap I wont. More chemical crap the gov. wants us to eat and use.
I have to agree with softdude and SNOOK.
Believe me when I tell you there is no way they will just throw the meat out, they will find a way to make a profit on it. They will direct it back to being used in dog food like it originally was before stealthily making its way into ground beef meant for human consumption.
Like the article stated, if they just would've labeled it in the first place this whole thing wouldn't be nearly as big of an issue. The big thing that gets every riled up is that it was done secretly.
I mostly agree with what you're saying. And this seems like a reasonable solution. Just give the people the information as to what they're eating. It's all I'm asking for. I had no idea this was being done, or what was in "beef". (of course that's probably true for most everything we eat).
Just label what's in there and let the consumer decide.
Here's what's funny. I'll bet that years back when this practice was begun (to put this stuff out for human consumption) the producers fought tooth and nail to PREVENT it's disclosure on labels, knowing this uproar was coming. Now they're begging for it just to stay alive.
"But in the early 90s, former undersecretary of agriculture Joann Smith decided that it was meat, allowing it to enter the human food chain. When she left her post in 1993, she immediately took a job with Beef Products, Inc. on their board of directors."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/08/whistleblowers-70-percent-of-u-s-ground-beef-contains-pink-slime/
That says it all.
People! Soylent Green is people!!! I'm not sure about Soylent Pink.
Soylent Pink is cows rectums.
Thank you Softdude for the information.
Want a real scare look at the label on some of the frozen and canned foods that used to contain ground beef. Its in there.......People were not told and they sold mislabeled products like 4.99 a pound that says ground sirloin which contains 15% pink slime.
please educate yourself, beefisbeef.com
This is 100%lean beef, ecoli free, safe for our familes! learn the facts they speak the truth!
MSpielman
I might agree but there really was no waste because they used the scraps for dog food. They figured how to make more money using it for people food. If you prefer to eat dog food buy dog food its cheaper. Chemicals don't appeal to me.
MSpielman,
I see your point and agree about waste. I recall as a child my grandmother never wasted anything. However, she planned her meals to use all meat by- products and products. I recall a conainer full of meat lard used for all sorts of things that sat in her refrigerator. My own mother did the same and more. I do believe there could be a better purpose for this product opposed to adding it to a staple in our food chain. These scraps could be cooked and combined with all sorts of other meats to create canned products labeled as such. As a kid groundbeef was combined with ground pork. A meatloaf, hamburger or meatballs had a distinct and comforting taste as a consequence. If a meat product is cooked thoroughly and properly prepared it should be safe without additives. Many of us older adults talk about how we should never have survied given current food logic. We are living longer and I wouldn't give all the credit to better health care alone. All foods have an expiration date and do not sell after that is why often fresh foods are thrown out. I just believe this is not a good approach to using a by-product that could serve other purposes.
I'm sure softdude has been there and seen what they do to it and is in fact an international expert on what is food and what is not. NOT.
Fact is, it really is meat. Yes - it is stuff that was trimmed off from other meats, often because it contains too much fat. It is then cooked to remove the fat, disinfected with a dilute solution of ammonium hydroxide to kill the bacteria, and then finely ground so that it can be incorporated with other meats. The ammonium hydroxide is actually quite benign, as far as antimicrobials go. It is also very volatile, so when you cook it it is mostly cooked off. There are far worse things that can and do get put into food to keep it safe.
You may wonder why it is not on the label? Simple - it is meat. What are they gonna say on the label - contains meat and ... meat?
You may say you don't want any chemicals on your meat? Well then, buy a farm and butcher your own. Every processor must put chemicals on the foods they handle, or they will end up getting sued by everyone for selling bacteria-laden food. Bacteria are everywhere, and especially in places where large amounts of food are processed, you need the chemicals to keep it safe. I'm thinking most people would not want to butcher their own cows, because they then wouldn't be able to sue anyone.
When I buy a pound of prepackaged ground beef from Wal-Mart, which in all likelihood has the pink stuff in it, I use it to make sloppy joes or something like that. I won't eat it for hamburgers - it tastes nasty. And forget about making good meatballs with it. I almost always buy freshly ground beef from a local Italian grocery store for meatballs. When I roll them, I get almost no grease on my hands. The grease in even the leanest prepackaged hamburger from Wal-Mart gums up on your hands and it's hard to get off. I made meatballs with it once and that was that. Never again. And, the kick in the pants is that my local store's fresh product is actually cheaper by at least $1.00 per pound. Go figure.
Remember the scare from cow spines that caused mad cow disease in other animals when mixed in with their feed. How is feeding us the same spine any different?
SCUM BAG MEAT COMPANY made another CEO a millionaire and fed your kids crap. Way to go meat industry screw american's as much as possible you need the money for your CEO's.
Brisaber wrote: "it is mostly cooked off"
Well, that's not good enough. If I'm purchasing ammonia-treated meat, put in on the label and let ME make the choice of whether or not to consume it. If as you say, it's only mostly cooked off, then I'm consuming ammonia in addition to beef. Please excuse us poor consumers who rely on labels to know what we're cooking for our families . . . we expect them to be truthful so we can make informed decisions.
The only issue I have is that consumers apparently were purchasing meat with this product added without it being disclosed on the label. If all other food product have to disclose the contects and additives, meat should as well. We, as consumers, need to know what we are paying for, and what we are consuming. 100 % pure ground beef should be 100% pure ground beef, not ammonia treated or citric acid treated unless ammonia and citric acid are listed on the label.
I first noticed it a few years ago at Wal-mart. There was a difference in the consistency of the meat in the trays and the label said, "with beef flavorings." My deductive reasoning told me that if it needed to contain beef flavorings, it must not be 100 percent pure beef. But it doesn't bother me much as I grew up in a large family and our ground beef was often enhanced with oats or bread crumbs in order to make it go further. Soy however, is my most unfavorite additive. I call those cereal burgers. I agree with the LFTB labeling though, as I think the label "pink slime" is actually what turns people off. I wonder how many who detest the pink slime consume potted meat products, vienna sausages or spam. My daughter always termed these as "mystery meats." My biggest pet peeve is the term Black Angus, which has caused beef prices to soar. And I suspect that many times when we think we are having Angus, we are consuming brown cow as always. Its the price that scares me more than the contents.
We have been fighting Monsanto and the Monsanto owned FDA for years trying to get them to label Genetically Modified food so we know which products have pesticide and herbicide built right in to the cell of the plant and Monsanto's only defense was to say "it would be like putting a skull and cross bones on the package, no one will buy it." So in other words they know their product is poison and yet the FDA still won't label it. In fact Great Britain has to pay us a fine of over $60,000,000 a year because they force use to label our genetically modified food before shipping it to them, and guess what, NOBODY EATS THE GARBAGE OVER THERE.
The take over of our regulatory agencies by wingnut conservative industry insiders has created the most corrupt government in the history of the world. If you look closely you will find the owners of BPI and other companies poisoning our food supply are all cut from the same "conservative" cloth. This group of religious fanatices posing as freemarketeers will be the death of America.
Proud WV: You forgot about the ALL AMERICAN HOT DOG which is also mystery meat, all types of sausages, deli meats i.e. salami, pepperoni etc...
I for one have no problem with any of those products you mentioned as mystery meats because they all taste good to me. Animals were created here on earth as a food source so why not eat it all???
Pepperoni is something like 80% blood. I kinda cringed when I heard that... but I kept eating my pizza because it was deeelish!
@Wyoming liberal. You really should come down off the drugs before you post. Government agencies as well as most of the bureaucrats are liberals. Just look at all the agency heads. The government and education establishment is mostly liberal. Wake up and stop buying the propaganda. The pink slime crap should be in dog food and products labeled with it. Then I can make a choice to eat or not. To those that say hamburger will cost too much, it didn't before they started adding this crap to increase profit margins. If I pay for ground beef, that's what I want. If I want processed, whatever, I will buy it. Remember, don't question the liberal government, they are here to help you. Now, do as you're told!
Fred, I'm going to have to disagree with you, although we really shouldn't be trying to make this a conservative/liberal issue. I read a report some years ago on the FDA and the people working there, and was stunned to see so many of its members were former executives from companies like Monsanto and other chemcical companies. That's a problem --- but it's kept very quiet.
I was on a blog the other day talking about this, and there was one individual in particular, who was so angry with the media. The media this, and the media that -- blaming them for the entire scandal, and screaming about how dishonest they are. Well, I think it was extremely dishonest of them not to tell consumers about this and other additives in our food.
This isn't really a "government" issue -- it's a business issue. One in which they have been extremely dishonest about food labeling.
Americans aren't going to stop eating meat (although hamburgers and hot dogs are off my menu), but at least be honest about what's being done to their food.
I would prefer the "pink slime" not be in my food in any form but if "ignorant" & "innocent" BPI employees could loose their jobs - then a compromise to clearly label the food is beneficial to both LFTB manufacturers and consumers.
@MSpielman... excellent point. I do think this stuff is probably as safe as any other processed food. The fact is any processed food isn't the best option. I object to the fact that there is nothing on the label that tells me that this processed food is in my beef. I'm all for allowing this stuff in our food but it should be mandated that it be labeled. Let the consumer decide.
For me it's not an arguement over is this stuff good or bad I just want to KNOW if it's in the beef so I can make the choice for myself. I also want to know if my school is using it in my kids food so yet again I can make the choice about what my kids eat.
If it is labeled Ground sirloin it must be only ground sirloin Ground beef can be anything off of the cow I guess if it shows the additives like the cotri acid and ammonia. The trick here is they knew if the they labeled it nobody would buy it so it was decepion from the start. I grind my own and have since 95. I also make my own sausages. You can make good hamburger in a food processor. Look at how many meat recalls we have had and how many people have died from our food supply since the fda went south on us.
I read somewhere (and of course I can't find it now) that the scraps that are now put into pink slime used to be used in animal food (cat food, dog food, etc.). Slaughterhouses are at least efficient in the fact that they use every part of the animal they can. Why not? If they can sell it to someone for their use (no matter what that use is), why not make some more money on that animal? The problem comes in with the industrialization of our food and lowering the quality (and price) of people food by adding things that were once only fit for the pets. Where do we draw the line? Quality or price? How much quality are we willing to sacrifice for cheaper food?
Yes they use the scraps for dog food and other animal food. Heres the deal they make more money off the "Pink Slim" than they do from selling it as dog food.
If u buy it they will of course sell it to you with the smile to boot. U as a consumer can decide what u buy and what not.
Even my dogs don't eat pink slime or other nasty chemical junk. For around .79 cents a pound I buy chicken and cook it for them once a week. Nothing and no one should be eating chemically processed foods. All ground beef entering my kitchen will be ground at the store or we'll have something else.
Good idea if you can find fresh chicken with no steroid enhancement in the breasts. And recently there was a warning about dogs getting kidney failure from chicken jerky and chicken treats. Scares me a little, even for my dog. I'm just happy he doesn't like chicken. Bad enough to have to worry about the toxin levels of the corn in his food.
And the corn may be genetically altered and does not have to be labeled thanks to the producers who bought the fda for political contributions.
Yes, they are/were getting kidney failure from chicken treats BECAUSE they were manufactured in China! It's not the chicken that's the problem.
I hope that's organic free range chicken you're feeding your dogs. Conventional chickens are bathed in chlorine as part of their slaughterhouse processing.
Of course I doubt you'll find organic free range birds for $.79 a pound. *shrug*
untoryodi, we the consumer are being deprived of an educated choice when the ingredient list is not accurate. That's the problem.
Not a chance that I would buy anything with that in it! This garbage is banned in number of countries that put people first. Good old USA puts big money first - every time. And we wonder why we have soooo much autism!!!!!!!!! Ditto the state of Healthcare & gas prices.
"Safe?" That's the standard? Cardboard is safe, but it doesn't belong in our food. What is wrong with USDA that they allowed pink slime into meat for how many years? undisclosed. As far as I have read, it has no nutritional value. We pay for beef muscle in our burgers, but we are forced to pay premium prices for it - with unknown amounts of pink slime added! Who will be testing burger in the future to make sure suppliers and grocers aren't sneaking it back again? Is it worth your vote in November to strengthen govt regulatory agencies that are proactive on matters like this? We get what we vote for.
As far as I have read, it has no nutritional value.em>>
Then keep reading up on it because it has the same nutritional profile of any other cut of beef.
Just look what they put in hot dogs...You would puke.... nancy C : the cat & dog food good better stuff in it...Why do you think poor old people eat it. I myself will not buy anything thats got pink slime in it...If I want the Sh*t in it I would eat a Hot dog......
Hot dogs are great! If you make them at home. Bout once a month we make our sausage and Metts (hot dogs) at home. You can control the fat content and the flavor and the additives you choose to use them in. Alton Brown has excellent videos too show you how. We figure a pound of burger ends up costin us lee that the stores chare by over a buck fifty and no slime in it.
I thought the USDA'a job was to protect the public not industry. Why would some companys in the beef industry need permision for labeling of contents? Why wouldn't the UDSA force all of the companys to list additives in the food we eat or any product we consume? Why is our Government not transparent?
Money talks; nobody walks.
The USDA has been bought and paid for by BigAgra for a long time now. After all, it would just confuse us if we knew the truth.
Ok to the dumbass or dumbasses that say this crap is safe should eat at least 1 or 2 whole meals of this sh@t a day for a year then get check up to see how the obesity and diabetes and whatever prionic disease may have developed from eating this offal.. thats what it is you know.. Offal! Yeah leave it to good old American greed and the worthless sh@ts in government they purchase to pull this..Yep Soyburgers are looking pretty good about now.
If vermin (Rats, Raccoons, Stray cats and dogs etc) won't eat it (Soy, Vegy, Bean burgers) I will not eat it.
Phartnocker 57: Hawaii is the largest consumer of SPAM and they all dont have obesity or diabetes or other diseases anymore than the rest of the country so I dont think your thinking of having those who dont have a problem with scrap meat being eaten twice a day for a year would not really produce any significant result that you think it would.
Funny thing is that this is used primarily in the 90% lean or higher grade ground beef. You know, the "healthy" one....LOL
When do we get to find out what's inside weiners? It's bound to be far worse. You can label just about anything "beef" or "chicken" as long as it's a piece of something that came off the animal.
Where do you think Jimmy Hoffa went?
I think not too far in the future we are not going to be concerned about this stuff.
we are organ donors now, protein donors in the future
can we all say 'soylent green lol'
OK governors and USDA nerds, I get it. It's safe. I still ain't eatin that $h1t. And you should be ashamed of yourselves for promoting it.
THey all are pointing to the fact that the product is safe. That is not the point with public. We as public want ground beef not scraps that used to go dog food, and were scraped off the floor. Plus it maked ground beef taste horrible. THe CEOs just dont get it. They all are after the penny it brings in. They can call it what they like it still is scraps left over. Dont feed it to us humans.
It's NOT scraps that were destined to be dog food. Nothing was scraped off the floor. When a packing factory is preparing different cuts of meat, the fat is usually cut off. Inevitably, there is still meat left on the fat. Before this company came up with this process, that meat was historically discarded with that fat. With the process that Beef Products Incorporated patented, that meat can now be used, therefore reducing the amount of cattle that need to be slaughtered and lowering the overall price of beef. The beef is puffed with a minute amount of ammonium hydroxide. This is the part that really scares people, when in reality, it shouldn't. Ammonium Hydroxide was approved to be used in food products by the FDA in 1974, and is also used in items such as snack foods, baked goods and many other foods that people eat every day.
And, I bet you would never know the difference if someone gave you a blind taste-test. The only thing you're upset about is the name, which was only coined by a disgruntled ex-inspector.
why is it treated with ammonia and what does the ammonia do
it raises the PH to kill pathogens like E-coli making the meat safer for consumption. The same ammonia is used to make bread, it's in fresh fruit and veggies and many other foods.
Read the article again. Ammonium Hydroxide is used to kill bacteria. Alternate method is raising pH.
The latter would seem preferable but, since this meat was previously put in dog food, ....
Makes me wonder what is now being put in dog food to replace it. This may be why pet food is getting bad: a lot of ingredients are from 'foriegn markets', mainly China. Don't believe me? Call your pet food manufacturer and ask.
GKinTN-
No I don't need to read it again. You need to review basic chemistry. Ammonia Hydroxide is a base. It raises the Ph balance of the meat (a base is any substance witha PH higher than 7.0). The alternative method of using Citric ACID (an acid has a PH level less than 7.0) lowers the PH or the food. By raising or lowering the PH balance it creates an environment inhospitable to bacteria. Both methods are essentially the same, just pushing the PH in opposite directions. Safety of both methods are the same.
Chinese markets have put melamine in their food to make it seem like it has more protein when analyzed for protein content. That lead to the pet food recall in 2007 because it was killing pets and the infant formula scandal in China in 2008 because it killed babies and ruined the kidneys of hundreds of thousands of kids. I'll take meat soaked in ammonia any day over melamine adulteration.
By itself Pink Slime is not recognizable as beef. It has the texture of meat jello. How can anyone feel they are getting a quality product if the texture of part of the product is no longer what one would expect from ground beef and in fact may not even be ground beef! And that does not even take into account what changes it potentially causes in the flavor of the ground beef it has been added to! At the bare minimum this is false labeling and giving someone what could in fact be considered an inferior product without telling them!
In addition, there is no way to trace any illness and tie it back to Pink Slime specifically so there is really no way to know if it is truly safe or not. I mean, it is mixed into ground beef. How can you tell what part caused it! And don't forget, How could anyone have even been able to suspect the Pink Slime since they had no idea it was even in there!
Regardless whether you are worried about the safety or not, I want quality food with the proper texture and the proper flavor. Is funny now that I know there is pink slime because I had felt that some ground beef did in fact have a different texture and flavor but thought maybe I was just losing my taste abilities!!! I want a choice in what I purchase. I am more than willing to pay a little extra to get quality.
I feel this was a big breach of trust of the public by the USDA for approving this without requiring labeling. I prefer to eat foods that are not processed. Therefore, I have ordered a meat grinder and will be taking control of my food supply as much as I am able.
we do have a choice. 1 grind your own beef. 2 buy either ground sirloin or ground chuck or like . By definition they cannot contain pink slime only the portion of carcass they have on the name. 3 have butcher grind the meat in front of u. Smile life is short and free ranging grass fed beef always tastes better.
@untoryodi We have a choice now, but what about all those years where we didn't know it was in there? That is what I am talking about. If I had the time and money I would even consider to raise my own beef as we do have enough yard for them. Also, how do you know they did not put it in ground sirloin or ground chuck? It's not exactly labeled right now!
chuck and sirloin and alike can only contain such, no additives that is a requiement. Hamburger and ground beef is different story. I have known about slime before it hit the news, and used to live in the country where grass fed free roaming cows were the norm and still are. first think i noticed about beef when i came here was the poor taste, sort of like chewing card board.
You can readily detect it if you know your ground beef. It has that light pinkish color, even when blended into the meat. Also, the fat content will be a bit different. Its a bit like trying to fry meat loaf.
You do not have enough yard to raise a steer. If you have some space you could bring in enough feed for it to eat.
@BTW3110 I have several acres, so I do kind of have enough "yard". I just don't have the time nor the money to get all the extra stuff necessary to care for one properly.
@ProudWestVirginian I had long suspected that some places had ground beef that tasted different and seemed to have a different texture, I just didn't know why. I knew the quality was suffering, I just didn't know in what way it was suffering.
"By itself Pink Slime is not recognizable as beef. It has the texture of meat jello."
Maybe "pink slime" is like this. But, the subject of the article is Lean Finely Textured Beef. It does NOT have the consistency of slime. In fact, it looks much like any other ground beef, except for the fact that the fat content is so low, it does not stick together well, and crumbles.
I'm not really sure what you're referencing, but don't act like you know something when you really don't.
to baby blue. LFTB aka pink slime.
Why isn't the USDA telling us EXACTLY what is in the food we buy? Why the need for Voluntary Labeling? If the USDA isn't protecting the consumer, exactly what is their mandate? Never mind the schools, how many citizens were aware of what they were putting in our chopped meat. We purchase lean meats, because we believe they're healthier! What if somebody is allergic to some of the "sanitizing" products? Who protects them?
I agree. What is the point of companies "voluntarily" labeling when everyone else isn't? If anything, that just confuses consumers and gives the impression that products that aren't labeled are safe, which in this instance, is not the case.
Absolutely, it belongs in pet food! As for me, I will be buying chuck or round roast and having the butcher grind it up while I watch! Guess I won't be eating fast food burgers anymore. Then there are all the nicer restaurants - what are they serving?
Actuallly Horse Crazy Lady, I think most of the burgers in the nicer restaurants are still pure beef. It is mostly the quick frozen burgers that contain the additives. And even in the fast food places, the more expensive burgers probably contain the beef. Still, you're right. The best burger is what you obtain fresh and watch them grind yourself.
I would not trust hamburgers at 'fancy' restaurants any more than I could throw them.
The allure of the Almighty Dollar pulls them too, and if Wolfgang Puck can save a few dollars here and there, you better believe he's going to do it (in fact, I would almost expect it from high end restaurants).
It's better to get in the kitchen and cook anyway plus you'll save a ton of money, hell it doesn't take much effort to make your own fries either.
@Jet, Hopefully you don't eat at fast food eateries, I bought a hamburger at such a place once. I took a bite and looked for a homeless person and gave it to him. It didn't even taste like hamburger. Don't just pick on Wolfgang Puck, it always boils down to money, why do you think at the processing plants that began to put that crap in it--money.
The use of all the ammonia is to kill the bacteria produced by the cattle when they eat corn. Free range or grass fed animals do not have this problem. The corn fed animals contain these bacteria as corn is not a natural food for these animals. The beef industry uses corn in the coffers as there is no grass to be eaten and is used to fatten the animals up faster. The fast food indusrty was the start as beef needs to be produced faster and the fillers reduced the amount of real beef product.
I have stopped eating food from fast food restaurants for over 3 years and stopped eating ground beef as it doesn't even come from a single cow. 1lb of ground beef can come from over 100 different animals. I also have looked into local/regional farmers that do not feed the cattle corn. They usually know butchers that make all the cuts from the portion that you purchase. There are plenty of web sites that are available in your region to select from. Get a deep freezer and a neighbor of friend and get some "fresh" beef locally that has no bacteria, no fillers, or has been treated with ammonia.
At the beginning of the flap over pink slime, it was estimated that 80% of the ground beef in this country contained it, so it's very unlikely that you would be able to avoid it no matter where you eat - high end restaurant or fast food.