Maybe everyone here has money to buy the butcher cut ground meat or run out to the local farmer for grain fed. We don’t. When we buy “ground meat” we buy the big tubes. THAT is this product. It’s not a “filer”. It’s beef. You make a patty out of it and it’s actually leaner than some of the ground chuck patties I’ve cooked at my in-laws.
Cowboy up. Not everyone can afford the fine stuff. And when you grew up like I did, eating Scrapple and head cheese, you find that meat is meat when you’re hungry.
Great, you buy all of it you want. I can afford not to. It seems an awful lot of people find the process revolting and don't want it in their ground beef. Stores are responding to keep their customers.
And yes, it is filler. If it weren't they could package their "lean, finely textured beef" product up and compete with the regular stuff. And I am all for that too. If it is safe, and I have no reason to think it isn't, then Beef Products Inc. should sell it as is.
Mechanically separated chicken is pretty revolting too. I avoid stuff made of that as well. I've got no problem if you want to eat it, just let me know exactly what it is so I can make my own choice.
This is about TRUTH IN PACKAGING. When I go to a grocery store to buy ground beef, I expect it to be 100% ground chuck. Not 75% ground chuck, 25% ground beef by-product. If the market wants to offer a lower priced substitute, fine, great, I got no problem. But LABEL it. Don’t deceive customers.
By the way, you make it sound like this has been SOP for decades. How about they’ve only been doing it for a few years. My family has always bought locally raised beef up until the last few months. We immediately noticed a difference in the store bought ground beef. When we first read about pink slime, it all made sense.