McDonald's admits to having used pink slime...

porcelain_doll · February 2012

(source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10282876-mcdonalds-drops-use-of-gooey-ammonia-based-pink-slime-in-hamburger-meat)

McDonald's drops use of gooey ammonia-based 'pink slime' in hamburger meat

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

McDonald's confirmed that it has eliminated the use of ammonium hydroxide — an ingredient in fertilizers, household cleaners and some roll-your-own explosives — in its hamburger meat.

The company denied that its decision was influenced by a months-long campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to get ammonium-hydroxide-treated meats like chicken and beef out of the U.S. food supply. But it acknowledged this week that it had stopped using the unappetizing pink goo — made from treating otherwise inedible scrap meat with the chemical — several months ago.

Besides being used as a household cleaner and in fertilizers, the compound releases flammable vapors, and with the addition of certain acids, it can be turned into ammonium nitrate, a common component in homemade bombs. It's also 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."
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McDonald's decision was first reported this week by the Daily Mail, a blaring British tabloid, which trumpeted it as a victory for fellow Brit Oliver against the monolithic U.S. food industry.

Oliver's campaign began in April, when he included a segment on what he called "pink slime" on his TV show, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" (warning: some readers may find this video distasteful):

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver demonstrated how mechanically separated meat — which McDonald's calls "select lean beef trimmings" — is made on his show "Food Revolution."

The use of treated scrap meat "to me as a chef and a food lover is shocking," Oliver said. "... Basically we're taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest form for dogs and making it 'fit' for humans."

Todd Bacon, McDonald's senior supply chain officer, told the Daily Mail that the decision "was not related to any particular event, but rather to support our effort to align our global beef raw material standards."

In a statement, McDonald's clarified that it stopped using "select lean beef trimmings" — its preferred term for scrap meat soaked in ammonium hydroxide and ground into a pink meatlike paste — at the beginning of last year.

"This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year," it said.

Sarah Prochaska, a registered dietitian at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, said that ammonium hydroxide is widely used in the U.S. food industry but that consumers may not be able to know what products include it because the USDA considers it a component in a production procedure — separating scrap meat — and not an ingredient that must be listed on food labels.

"It's a process, from what I understand, called 'mechanically separated meat' or 'meat product,'" Prochaska told NBC station KSDK of St. Louis.

While the government considers it safe, it certainly "does not look anything like ground beef," she said. And since it's not on nutrition labels, the only way to avoid it "would be to choose fresher products, cook your meat at home, cook more meals at home," she said.

2fit4fat · February 2012

Gross glad I've never been a big fast food person but he also says it could be in your ground beef

porcelain_doll · February 2012

Yeah, I think of this now every time I'm tempted to go to any drive-thru......... yuck!

Espressocycle · February 2012

I'm a firm believer in using every part of the animal. I have no problem with chicken privates being ground up in my nuggets. The mechanically separated meat process is kinda gross though. I prefer boiling all the meat off the bones and making soup, or possibly scrapple.

PS - The government does require mechanically separated meat to be labeled as such in the ingredients list.

porcelain_doll · February 2012

LOL @ chicken privates!! Ahhh, nasty!!!

stormieweather · March 2012

And....McDonald's might not be using pink slime anymore, but our school system is...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/pink-slime-for-school-lun_n_1322325.html?ref=mostpopular

Pink slime -- that ammonia-treated meat in a bright Pepto-bismol shade -- may have been rejected by fast food joints like McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King, but is being brought in by the tons for the nation's school lunch program.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is purchasing 7 million pounds of the "slime" for school lunches, The Daily reports. Officially termed "Lean Beef Trimmings," the product is a ground-up combination of beef scraps, cow connective tissues and other beef trimmings that are treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. It's then blended into traditional meat products like ground beef and hamburger patties.

"We originally called it soylent pink," microbiologist Carl Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection Service for 35 years, told The Daily. "We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat."

Custer and microbiologist Gerald Zernstein concluded in a study that the trimmings are a "high risk product," but Zernstein tells The Daily that "scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval" under President George H.W. Bush's administration. The USDA asserts that its ground beef purchases "meet the highest standard for food safety."

Controversy surrounding "pink slime" stems from various safety concerns, particularly dangers associated with ammonium hydroxide, which can both be harmful to eat and has potential to turn into ammonium nitrate -- a common component in homemade bombs, according to MSNBC. It's also used in household cleaners and fertilizers.

In 2009, The New York Times reported that despite the added ammonia, tests of Lean Beef Trimmings of schools across the country revealed dozens of instances of E. coli and salmonella pathogens.

Between 2005 and 2009, E. coli was found three times and salmonella 48 times, according to the Times, including two contaminated batches of 27,000 pounds of meat.

And that's why I pack my child's school lunch. Ugh...

elis_mama · March 2012

I'm a firm believer in using every part of the animal. I have no problem with chicken privates being ground up in my nuggets. The mechanically separated meat process is kinda gross though. I prefer boiling all the meat off the bones and making soup, or possibly scrapple.

PS - The government does require mechanically separated meat to be labeled as such in the ingredients list.

This^^^^

Sl1ghtly · March 2012

Well... Dead chickens usually aren't very attractive anyway. What's the big deal?

stormieweather · March 2012

To me, this is the big deal:

We originally called it soylent pink," microbiologist Carl Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection Service for 35 years, told The Daily. "We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat."

It's ok to feed our children nutritionally deficient foodstuffs? And products that were treated with ammonium nitrate -

particularly dangers associated with ammonium hydroxide, which can both be harmful to eat and has potential to turn into ammonium nitrate -- a common component in homemade bombs, according to MSNBC. It's also used in household cleaners and fertilizers.

Delicious!! :huh: :noway: :grumble:

duharvalgt · March 2012

Lol if you think that is bad look at the amount of silicones (Polydimethylsiloxane)(commercially known as that stretchy stuff called "putty") they use in most of the meat products :laugh:

Not one of the safest E numbers if you ask me ( but then again I'll dispute most of E-900s as most are sweetners or glazers)

cmayfield3 · March 2012

It's ok to feed our children nutritionally deficient foodstuffs? And products that were treated with ammonium nitrate -

particularly dangers associated with ammonium hydroxide, which can both be harmful to eat and has potential to turn into ammonium nitrate -- a common component in homemade bombs, according to MSNBC. It's also used in household cleaners and fertilizers.

Delicious!! :huh: :noway: :grumble:

To be fair though, this is a bit of a sensationalist argument. I don't know whether ammonium hydroxide is safe or not, but just because something is an ingredient in cleaners or bombs doesn't mean it is unsafe. Water is a common ingredient in cleaners, and so are baking soda and vinegar. I'm not going to stop drinking water or baking/cooking with baking soda or vinegar. Mix lemon juice and bleach and you release chlorine gas. That doesn't mean lemon juice is unsafe by itself.

brittyc1988 · March 2012

And....McDonald's might not be using pink slime anymore, but our school system is...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/pink-slime-for-school-lun_n_1322325.html?ref=mostpopular

Pink slime -- that ammonia-treated meat in a bright Pepto-bismol shade -- may have been rejected by fast food joints like McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King, but is being brought in by the tons for the nation's school lunch program.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is purchasing 7 million pounds of the "slime" for school lunches, The Daily reports. Officially termed "Lean Beef Trimmings," the product is a ground-up combination of beef scraps, cow connective tissues and other beef trimmings that are treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. It's then blended into traditional meat products like ground beef and hamburger patties.

"We originally called it soylent pink," microbiologist Carl Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection Service for 35 years, told The Daily. "We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat."

Custer and microbiologist Gerald Zernstein concluded in a study that the trimmings are a "high risk product," but Zernstein tells The Daily that "scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval" under President George H.W. Bush's administration. The USDA asserts that its ground beef purchases "meet the highest standard for food safety."

Controversy surrounding "pink slime" stems from various safety concerns, particularly dangers associated with ammonium hydroxide, which can both be harmful to eat and has potential to turn into ammonium nitrate -- a common component in homemade bombs, according to MSNBC. It's also used in household cleaners and fertilizers.

In 2009, The New York Times reported that despite the added ammonia, tests of Lean Beef Trimmings of schools across the country revealed dozens of instances of E. coli and salmonella pathogens.

Between 2005 and 2009, E. coli was found three times and salmonella 48 times, according to the Times, including two contaminated batches of 27,000 pounds of meat.

And that's why I pack my child's school lunch. Ugh...