Monday, 16 April 2012
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Pink Slime in My Child’s Beef?
Did you know that there may be “pink slime” in the beef you and your children are eating? Sound appetizing? Perhaps it sounds better and more nutritious referred to by its proper, more appetizing name – lean finely textured beef (LFTB) or boneless lean beef trimmings (BLBT). Regardless of what we call it, it exists, and most of us are eating it unknowingly.
So what exactly is “pink slime”/LFTB/BLBT? Simply put, it is processed beef trimmings. In the past, these trimmings were primarily used for the production of pet foods and cooking oils. In the early 1990s, however, “pink slime” technology was invented and we have been consuming it ever since.
So what is “pink slime” technology? The beef trimmings are heated and then spun around in a centrifuge to separate the meat particles from the fat and tissue. Any bacteria that exist are killed by ammonia, to make it safe for human consumption. The “pink slime” is then finely ground and compressed into blocks to be sold as beef product filler. This filler makes our beef leaner and cheaper.
“Pink slime” is approved by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and it is allowed in any school lunch menu in the country. The USDA does not require ammonia to be listed on any beef product labels that contain “pink slime” as it says ammonia is not an ingredient but rather a process. That is a technicality since we are still ingesting it. And beware, even if “pink slime” is removed from beef products, it is expected to move on to other meats.
So where do I get “pink-slime-free” ground beef?
- ABC News contacted the top grocery chains in America to see if their beef contained “pink slime”. Visit here to see how they responded http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/where-to-get-pink-slime-free-beef/
- Jamie Oliver, the famous English-chef, known for his mission to improve the world’s eating habits, suggests watching the butcher grind your beef in front of you to know for sure what is in your beef. Check out this video where he explains about beef and “pink slime” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wshlnRWnf30
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Comments (15)
While pink slime is certainly disgusting, i don't know of any grocery store where i can watch my meat being cut up. The only butcher shop in town just closed
Call the ghostbusters.
whole foods!
This is hardly new or shocking. Go to a butcher or somewhere like whole foods if you want "fresh" meat.
I don't see the problem. Quit feeding your kids beef.
Ah, America.
Buy from small local farmers, if you can.
"We have developed a scientific process of separating the meat from its unhealthy (fat) and undesirable (skin and ligament [unless you're eating rotisserie chicken or pho] tissue) materials, which is then treated with a chemical to increase the assurance that nobody dies from the more persistent food-borne illnesses. This is grotesque and obviously unnatural and therefore unacceptable. After all, I butcher all my meat myself; I make sure my kids are taught the proper methods of hunting game, bloodletting cows, plucking chickens, skinning rabbits and flaying pork. I don't like science being used to impact what we eat, after all, everything is better when it's "natural." It's not as though we've been making use of farming and a variety of sanitation techniques based on the need and scale of the population for tens of thousands of years, and the naturalistc fallacy is so thoroughly imbedded in the way that I look at the world that it makes it impossible for me to separate the forest from the trees. As it were.
Chemicals suck, nothing good is made of chemicals."
Vegetarian.
we buy all our meet from my uncle, who raises his own cattle.
Its free range, 100% organic, and the same price (if not cheaper) then buying the regular stuff in store.
They use pink slime and/or Meat slurry at several schools because it's cheaper. Previously used at McDonalds (although they say they won't use it anymore) & other fast food places. If you don't want it don't buy it. Pack your children's lunches, don't eat at fast food places (they're not healthy anyways.) It's avoidable.
@misslei11@xanga - What I would like to do.
@SHEERROSE@xanga - I had wanted to do it for a long time, would start, and then I wouldn't last. Then I watched the PETA video "If Slaughterhouses had Glass Walls everyone would be a Vegetarian" and it sealed the deal. Almost 2 months, no meat. And I'm fine with it :) They have a lot of great vegetarian alternatives now. Morningstar makes a lot of vegetarian fake "meats". Their "ribs" and "ground beef" are all very good.
@misslei11@xanga - Unfortunately I live with my parents I'm only 20 and I'm hoping to start college in the fall and my parents are big meat eaters so until I move out I can't not eat me. I also tried to cut down on meat and made myself sick and my doctor told me I need to eat more protein but like I said I don't buy the groceries I also don't drive either so I'm not a choice RIGHT NOW but in the future it probably would be.
other than the ammonia, what's wrong with pink slime? it just looks gross but it's all the same.