Posted on 03/26/2012 11:27:45 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The company that makes "pink slime" suspended operations Monday at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made, saying officials would work to address recent public concern about the product.
Beef Products Inc. will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company's director of food safety and quality assurance. The company's plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations.
"We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back," Letch said. "It's 100 percent beef."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Everyone can eat what they want, I could care less.
You do realize you're talking out of both sides of your mouth, right?
Yeah, there goes a relatively cheap ground beef option.
We could do something crazy and let the market decide. Include it on labeling and consumers can choose what they want.
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You have pretty much described exactly what has transpired. Enough people contacted their grocers and wam bam thank you ma’am, it’s off the shelf. The market in action.
I confess that once I received the meat grinding attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, I’ve been grinding my own anyway.
Whereas corn sugar may be a name worth fighting for, “pink slime” is definitely not. It is the infelicitous term for what beef producers prefer to call lean, finely textured beef, a filler comprising trimmings subjected to an ammonia-based gas to kill pathogens. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver decried the filler process on his television show, and the campaign against pink slime has gone viral through social media and a Change.org petition to stop its use in school lunches.
The term was reportedly coined by Gerald Zimstein, the former USDA scientist who brought the process to the public’s attention. Zimstein is not—surprise—a fan of the product. He also objected to a USDA decision allowing its use to be concealed from the American public and has made a point of calling it out. You’ll find him in the ABC News story reporting that some 70 percent of ground beef products in grocery stores contain pink slime.
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She [KJ Dell’Antonia, who writes the Motherlode blog for the NYT] also notes that that the ammonia, put in context with our other chemical exposures, doesn’t seem especially worrisome. And I tend to agree there too. What’s more interesting to me—and what hasn’t been covered especially well in the slime stories—is that foods that are ammonia-processed are remarkably widespread. Among them are breads, pastries, cheeses, chocolates, breakfast cereals, sports drinks, fruits, vegetables….in other words, if we’re going to worry about chemical processing, beef products need to stand in line.
Another smart piece from Amy Hubbard at the Los Angeles Times notes that even the consumer-advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest isn’t particularly alarmed about pink slime, noting rather depressingly that a lot worse things go into the daily diet. The center does plan to investigate whether the super-processed beef bits are less nutritious than regular beef.
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But one more point, just to complicate the story. You’ll recall I mentioned that the USDA has agreed to allow schools to choose slime-improved beef or to reject it. But it turns out that the regular, unprocessed ground beef alternative, lacking that super-lean filler, has a higher fat content. Another health story, anyone?
Folks will slurp down chittelings and head cheese and not think twice about it. But say “pink slime” and folks get apoplectic.
The market already had decided. The problem is the American people are kind of squeamish and when they find out how their food actually get to the table their usual reaction is horror.
Head cheese is some weird crap. Nothing like a good piece of scrapple.
Yes; based on raw emotion coupled with ignorance.
Not even the nut jobs at Center for Science in the Public Interest worried about pink slime, "noting rather depressingly that a lot worse things go into the daily diet." full article quote taken from
Do I eat it? No very often; we grind our own meat, so unless buying the occasional restaurant burger; or when invited to someone else's house; it isn't an issue with us.
what do you buy to grind up? (I mean that would not be better eaten NOT ground up?)
I have a kitchenaide mixer and love it to pieces and would like to try grinding my own
especially if I get a deer this year- I want to make it all into sausages mixed with some ground pork
I saw how they make this ‘pink slime’ and I thought it looked exactly like when they make baloney or hot dogs
I’m sick of Big Head Cheese telling me what to do.
It may be 100% cow, but it is not 100% beef.
1. There is NO SUCH THING as "pink slime." What there is, is lean beef recovered from fat trimmings by a process of heating and separating in a centrifuge. Jamie Oliver's "demonstration" was a travesty. If you take ground beef, mix it with household cleaner grade ammonia and spin it in a dryer, you WILL get "pink slime," but this is NOT the process used by industry. Mr Oliver may be a decent chef, but he knows nothing about food processing or food safety!
2. The treatment with a few puffs of ammonia gas is just enough to temporarily raise the pH (alkalinity) about 1-1/2 points above its natural pH. Why is this done? Because it KILLS E. Coli bacteria! Do you think ABC will be willing to accept the responsibility for the deaths that will result from the next outbreak of E. Coli contamination?
3. The product of this process, which has been used for years, is lean beef, which is why the USDA doesn't require its being labeled as an "ingredient." To make up for the amount of beef that is recovered by this process from the fat trimmed off steaks, roasts, etc., would require the slaughter of an additional 1.5 million head of cattle. Does anyone think this is a good idea?
I tried to figure out why he’s formerly with the USDA. Couldn’t find anything.
I used to grind my own venison/pork for sausage, but I wore out my Kitchenaid grinder. I’ve thought of getting another, but my husband doesn’t currently hunt (we live where it doesn’t make sense). But oh, do I love venison sausage. MMMM Lucky you.
I couldn’t either, so that probably means he was cashiered as a contrarian trouble maker, and then won a gag-order.
I’m just glad I went vegan years ago ;p LOL!
what do you buy to grind up? (I mean that would not be better eaten NOT ground up?)
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Usually a chuck roast. Something relatively fatty.
Makes sense I guess.
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