Pink Slime

Draca

Graduate Poster
Draca
Joined
May 9, 2010
Messages
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I've been following the Pink Slime story with disgust. Obviously we can not count on the government to provide protection or honesty on what is being sold as food. Absolutely outraged that major stores have gotten away with selling this. Our food supply is poisoned.

What I'm most outraged at is that it isn't even labeled to give people a choice, and there are no plans to require it to be labeled in the future. The USDA has utterly betrayed the American people in favor of big business.

Quote from ABC News "A USDA source told ABC news it’s up to the grocery stores to disclose what’s in their ground beef and the Agriculture Department has no jurisdiction."


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlin...und-beef-at-supermarkets-contains-pink-slime/

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/is-pink-slime-in-the-beef-at-your-grocery-store/

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/where-you-can-get-pink-slime-free-beef/

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/schools-can-opt-out-of-pink-slime-beef/
 
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Chemophobia?

Here's a comment from your second link

I am an Agricultural Engineer, this is my field. Meat is a fundamentally expensive product to produce, so processors look for any cost savings they can find. These filler materials are quite a normal thing in industry. You cannot get sick from this, chances are you have eaten this before and you are only grossed out because you know what is in it. I guarantee everybody that if you really knew what was in your products, and how they were manufactured (from make-up, food, soaps, and even pharmaceutics), you would never touch them again. Either get over it, kill it yourself or go without.
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Can we have some evidence that our food supply is poisoned?

I'm all for transparency about products, how they are made and where they come from. That seems to be the only legitimate issue.

eta

This advertisement appeared in the WSJ yesterday. I think that what Nancy Donley has to say there is extremely important.
 
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Being fed what is meant to be dog food is being nutritionally poisoned in my opinion. Not to mention the ammonia added to kill off all of the ecoli. Beyond gross.
 
What a dog is meant to be fed? So evolution shaped that meat in those places in cows for humans to feed to their dogs? No, that's a fearmongering, baseless argument.

Myth 5:

Dangerous chemicals are added to boneless lean beef trimmings.

Fact:

This is a reference to ammonium hydroxide, essentially ammonia and water, both naturally occurring compounds that have been used to make foods safe since 1974, when the Food and Drug Administration declared it GRAS or Generally Recognized as Safe, the highest safety attribution the agency assigns to compounds. Boneless lean beef trimmings receive a puff of ammonia to eliminate bacteria safely and effectively. When combined with moisture naturally in beef, ammonium hydroxide is formed, which is a naturally occurring compound found in many foods, in our own bodies and the environment. Food safety experts and scientists agree it is an effective way to ensure safer ground beef.
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http://beefisbeef.com/2012/03/15/top-7-myths-of-pink-slime/

At a time when food issues are looming as a serious challenge to human health in the next few decades, this kind of campaign is what is disgusting. I'll change my mind if there is a real case presented.
 
I've never heard of "Pink Slime" before. After looking at the first link and the Wikipedia article, I'm left with one question...

What's wrong with using beef trimmings in ground meat?

Seriously, I don't see the problem.

ETA: Or is it the ammonia gas that's disturbing people for some reason?
 
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Brian-M said:
I've never heard of "Pink Slime" before. After looking at the first link and the Wikipedia article, I'm left with one question...

What's wrong with using beef trimmings in ground meat?

Seriously, I don't see the problem.

ETA: Or is it the ammonia gas that's disturbing people for some reason?
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It's the combination of the word slime, and pictures of pink ooze. It was fine when we didn't know, but now people look at their ground beef and picture pink ooze.
 
I for one am very happy that we have a method of recovering edible products from carcasses that would otherwise be discarded. The claim of added ammonia is, at the very least, exaggerated. There are many claims made about so-called "pink slime" that just aren't true.
 
Draca said:
Being fed what is meant to be dog food is being nutritionally poisoned in my opinion. Not to mention the ammonia added to kill off all of the ecoli. Beyond gross.
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Whatever you do, don't think about how many maggots are allowed by the FDA to be in a jar of mayonaise.
 
It seems there is a substantial number of meat eaters who are grossed out by the entire concept of meat production.

I was one of those--I had to push the very idea (raising, slaughter, butchering, processing) out of my head. I got to the point where I wouldn't even touch it. I had to just slip it into the pan directly from the package and had to deliberately distract myself from thinking about how gross it is.

My advice is, if it bothers you that much, a very simple solution is to not eat it. There are plenty of alternatives that are healthy and much less gross--and cheaper too.

Now I don't spend so much effort trying to avoid being disgusted by what's on my plate and in my fridge. Life's too short for all that self-imposed angst. :)
 
My only beef (get it beef ha ha ha) is the economics of the situation. I am paying for X amount of ground up beef, but in fact only getting Y amount with the balance being made up of filler.

And the fact the filler is not described or apparently admitted too on the labeling - (I will check this claim on my next shopping trip) is very troubling. Having said all that I can see circumstances where I would purchase the product (knowingly) and use it as intended. A cheap way to fill peoples bellies when the budget is a bit tight
 
MG1962 said:
My only beef (get it beef ha ha ha) is the economics of the situation. I am paying for X amount of ground up beef, but in fact only getting Y amount with the balance being made up of filler.

And the fact the filler is not described or apparently admitted too on the labeling - (I will check this claim on my next shopping trip) is very troubling. Having said all that I can see circumstances where I would purchase the product (knowingly) and use it as intended. A cheap way to fill peoples bellies when the budget is a bit tight
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you pay for X amount of beef, and since the "filler" is made of beef you receive X amount of beef
 
defaultdotxbe said:
you pay for X amount of beef, and since the "filler" is made of beef you receive X amount of beef
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But the articles suggest the 'filler' does not have the nutritional value of beef. It is the same when you get the different qualities of ground beef 70/30 80/20 etc. A consumer sees a price break on the lower quality beef and purchases according to their need, be it health or simple budget constraints
 
Draca said:
Being fed what is meant to be dog food is being nutritionally poisoned in my opinion. Not to mention the ammonia added to kill off all of the ecoli. Beyond gross.
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"nutritionally poisoned" is a non-sequitur. It is either nutritional or not, but in neither case is it poisoned. Dogs need nutrition just like the rest of us animals do, and they seem to live on it well enough, so it is neither non-nutritional nor poison. Ammonia is added to many things to kill bacteria; I'm sorry if you never noticed. Do you eat hot dogs? You do know it has been used in human food since 1993? You better count on becoming a vegan, because this sort of thing is going to become more prevalent, not less, until meat becomes altogether too expensive to have at all.
 
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arthwollipot said:
I for one am very happy that we have a method of recovering edible products from carcasses that would otherwise be discarded. The claim of added ammonia is, at the very least, exaggerated. There are many claims made about so-called "pink slime" that just aren't true.
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I agree. It's great they borrowed a page from the American Indian.
 
I eat all the stuff anyways. Heart, tongue liver, kidney,spleen (called 'melts').

But I do stay away from the factory made 'chubs' of ground beef. Not because of the by-products, but the "deboned meat". DM is acquired by grinding up all the gristle and bone, filtering out the bone chips, and adding it to the ground meat. No flavor and no texture. Deboned Meat is the "Pink Slime". Logic is " It ain't bone, it must be meat".

I do have a dedicated electric meat grinder, and use it mostly to make my own sausage. But will occasionally run a whole brisket through it, and fill the freezer with hamburger. Mostly because I find that the best quality ground beef is too low in fat for best flavor. It's cheaper than buying hamburger, and as a side effect I can set aside some excess fat for home made pie crust.
 
arthwollipot said:
I for one am very happy that we have a method of recovering edible products from carcasses that would otherwise be discarded. The claim of added ammonia is, at the very least, exaggerated. There are many claims made about so-called "pink slime" that just aren't true.
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And, as far as I can tell, its still yummy and safe.
 
I just saw a sign at my market saying they never used pink slime, and I wondered what the heck they were talking about. Ew.
 
MG1962 said:
But the articles suggest the 'filler' does not have the nutritional value of beef. It is the same when you get the different qualities of ground beef 70/30 80/20 etc. A consumer sees a price break on the lower quality beef and purchases according to their need, be it health or simple budget constraints
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so what is the nutritional value of "beef" defined as? i thought it was a generic term referring to meat from a cow (which as i mention, the filler is)

casebro said:
I eat all the stuff anyways. Heart, tongue liver, kidney,spleen (called 'melts').

But I do stay away from the factory made 'chubs' of ground beef. Not because of the by-products, but the "deboned meat". DM is acquired by grinding up all the gristle and bone, filtering out the bone chips, and adding it to the ground meat. No flavor and no texture. Deboned Meat is the "Pink Slime". Logic is " It ain't bone, it must be meat".

I do have a dedicated electric meat grinder, and use it mostly to make my own sausage. But will occasionally run a whole brisket through it, and fill the freezer with hamburger. Mostly because I find that the best quality ground beef is too low in fat for best flavor. It's cheaper than buying hamburger, and as a side effect I can set aside some excess fat for home made pie crust.
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the hilighted bit is not true, in 2004 mechanically separated beef was banned for use in products intended for human consumption. the process by which "pink slime" is made stipulates that bones must emerge from the process intact

although mechanically separated pork and chicken can still be used (mostly in hot dogs)
 
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