A small victory has been made in the war against unhealthy processed food. “Pink Slime,” is a meat product that is made up of ground beef and an industrial ammonia-laced byproduct. Beef Products Inc. (BPI) is temporarily closing some of its pink slime production plants as a result of public out cry.
Pink Slime
In case you have not heard about “pink slime,” it is made from meat parts such as muscle connective tissue, meat scraps and anything else that was considered waste at the meat processing plant. This mixture is then sprayed with ammonium hydroxide to kill the bacteria (E. coli and salmonella), that might have been in these meat rejects, causing the mixture to look like pink soft serve ice cream. Nasty! This pink slime is then mixed with real ground beef and sold to consumers as ground beef.
Remember there have been three times that E. coli and 48 times salmonella were found in tests of Lean Beef Trimmings from schools across the country, between 2005-2009. This was beef that contained pink slime that was labeled as treated with ammonia and considered safe.
70% Of Ground Beef Contains “Pink Slime”
It is estimated that 70% of the ground beef sold contains the fake-meat additive known as “pink slime”, according to an former USDA scientist-turned-whistleblower Gerald Zirnstein. The USDA purchased 7 million pounds of the product for school lunches in public schools. This meat byproduct used to only be allowed sold as a pet food.
How did pink slime, which the industry calls “lean finely textured beef” get approved for use when many USDA scientists including Zirnstein clearly warned against its use? It appears that USDA officials with links to the beef industry gave the check off on the product. Joann Smith former undersecretary of agriculture made the decision to approve the mix, “it’s pink, therefore it’s meat.” Interesting that Smith left the USDA in 1993 and was appointed to the board of directors for BPI’s principal major supplier.
Caution!
Yes, BPI has temorarily closed its Waterloo, Iowa: Garden City, Kansas; and Amarillo Texas plants for at least the next 60 days. Workers will continue to get pay and benefits, but what happens after that? BPI has launched a mainstream media attack to recover and continue selling the product. The campaign is claiming that there is no difference between pink slime and real beef. BPI has also kept its largest processing plant open, running at full steam. Will pink slime continue under a new name?
Very Possible You Have Eaten Pink Slime
McDonalds has just announced it will stop using pink slime in its meat products along with Taco Bell and Burger King. Wow, didn’t they used to have a song about two all beef patties? Schools are being given the choice to purchase pink slime free meat by the USDA for use in the kids lunches. In the end it is up to the budget of the school as the pink slime free meat will cost more.
We Can Make A Change
Keep in mind all these changes happened because of the people complaining and becoming involved. You can make a difference let your school principal and school board know that you don’t want your kids eating pink slime meat. Ask where you buy your ground beef if it contains pink slime. The following say they don’t sell pink slime ground beef: Costco, Publix, HEB, Stop & Shop and Whole Foods. Kroger said it will no longer sell its beef with pink slime added.
Walmart has stated that it will start to offer the consumer a choice and now carry ground beef that does not contain pink slime and ground beef that does. Albertsons says it will stop selling pink slime ground beef.
What About Chicken
Yes, chicken has its own form of pink slime and that has not even been addressed!
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://news.yahoo.com
About Jeff
Eeeeek! Thanks for the article. I didn’t know of such a thing! I try to feed my family less red meat and only buy from a local store which grinds its own. I’ll be questioning them the next time I visit! I am waiting for a family friend to harvest a cow. His cows eat all grass except maybe some grain in the winter and live in pastures. He tells us that he never eats the meat from any store.