Governors to tour plant where 'pink slime' is made

AP/WorldMag ^ | Mar 27, 8:49 PM EDT | KRISTI EATON

[quantim]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The leaders of five states plan a visit to the only place where a beef product known as "pink slime" is still made, an effort aimed to support its embattled manufacturer, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Texas Gov. Rick Perry will visit the one Beef Products Inc. plant that's still in operation to combat misconceptions and misinformation about the company and its "lean, finely textured beef" product, company spokesman Rich Jochum said.

They'll be joined at the South Sioux City, Neb., plant on Thursday by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy and South Dakota Lt. Governor Matt Michels.

Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based Beef Products said Monday it is suspending operations at plants in Texas, Kansas and Iowa where it makes the low-cost beef ingredient from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts.

The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat, and the lean mix then is compressed into blocks and exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. The result is a product, which has been used for years and meets federal food safety standards, that is as much as 97 percent lean beef.

Critics call the product an unappetizing example of industrialized food production and dub it "pink slime."

[netmilsmom]

Thank you.

[netmilsmom]

>>I just got a chance to read through this thread and your a loon. <<

Lord I love when people start calling names and are misinformed.

You and the other poster here go from the assumption that I have no clue what this product is. My brother-in-law worked one of these grocery stores. I know EXACTLY what it is.

So, before you start with the name calling, prove it.
Prove how much “ground beef” goes into those tubes and how much “LTB” by percentage. YOU CAN’T. It’s all labelled as beef. The USDA labels all of it as beef. So while all the MSM sheeple bleat the same tired facts that ABC has lovingly dripped out, you bought it and use the MSM as your references instead of researching yourself.

Now you and your friend Longbow need a bit of education. Look at this from a fellow poster

“another hyped up campaign to further another democrat leftist cause. when are people going to wake up to what they’re doing?

When I was a butcher twenty years ago, the price of ground beef varied from $2.29 (on sale) to $5.99 regular price. Today, with inflation the cost of beef was $2.99 (on sale) and $5.49 regular price. Boneless chicken has fared better with the price for customers actually going down.
How does everyone this this happened? They found more ways to use more of the cow and better ways of growing chickens faster.
I remember that we would throw some of this stuff in the barrel for animal processing but it seemed like a waste. I see they came up with a way to process that perfectly good product for human consumption. It’s 100% pure beef, just processed more.

This will do absolutely nothing towards making us safer and will result in nothing but higher prices.

There is a reason it’s called “processing” and not “flower arrangement” they people that do it are called “butchers” and not florists.”

>>If it is so good, why not tell the world the amazing story of pink slime and how awesome it is at preventing E. coli?<<

Why didn’t they tell? Why don’t they tell how they make Hot Dogs? Why is it that everytime the MSM reports that there is a maximum amount of roach hairs or bug parts allowed, the public goes nuts? Etc.

You’re playing into their hands. The price of YOUR beef is about to skyrocket.

[mountainbunny]

What if they call it "beef slurry" instead of FTGB?

They could call it liquid gold, as far as I'm concerned, as long as they label it and let me pick, instead of hiding behind the government and saying, "But the feds say it's ok". Since when do conservatives think that the government has all the answers? I'm a consumer. It's my money. I want to know.

And there is a difference between "it isn't reasonably possible to filter out all of the bad stuff, but we'll do the very best we can" (and) "we're just going to go ahead and add poop to your meat, but it'll be steam-cleaned poop, so no worries". This is the second, and it is not acceptable.

In 1993 there were some deaths resulting from E. coli poisoning, linked to hamburger supplied to a certain fast-food chain.. That was the end of the "cheap beef" used by that chain, I guess. Was it the "pink slime" referenced here?

Not sure. According to one report there were 20,000 pounds+ of E Coli laced beef after the ammonia sprayers were shut off for repair for 2 minutes, but that was just a few years ago. One thing it does prove is that there is E Coli (and poop) in the beef. It is unreasonable to think that it all came through in that 2 minutes.

If you want real ground beef, and want to be absolutely sure of what you're getting, most butchers will take the chuck roast you pick out and bone and grind it for you.

Thank you for your suggestion. I second your suggestion of having the butcher do it, and would add that instead of choosing to eat or feed my loved ones ammoniated trimmings, I'd add either TVP (textured vegetable protein) to the meat to stretch it, or (if soy is an issue in your family), oatmeal. Oatmeal does an admirable job of making ground beef go further. I have used it 1,000+ times.

There are lots of other things to add besides veins, connective tissue and ammonia, as well, such as:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/stretching-ground-beef.htm

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/stretching-ground-beef-3.htm

http://www.choosingvoluntarysimplicity.com/stretching-ground-beef-in-a-recipe/

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/foodsavings/qt/Stretch_Beef.htm

http://tastycheapskate.blogspot.com/2011/03/5-ways-to-stretch-ground-beef.html

I have an older (read: metal gears) Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Worth its weight in gold. The only attachment we don't have is the meat grinder. I am about to change that.

We eat a lot of game meat, mostly elk and pronghorn, and I do get some ground every year, but it isn't the most cost effective way to use the meat. Some ground in inevitable, as the bits are too small to do much else with.

But because they are both such lean meats, beef fat usually has to be added to elk/pronghorn ground for it to stick together, and that costs money at the butcher.

So, I'm going to learn to grind my own, for the fun of it. I see hand-grinders at the thrift store from time to time, and that may end up being my back-up option. I also see nice cuts for less than ground on the sales rack, but don't always want to fire up the grill. Now, I'm going to grind them.