Pink Slime????? :(
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:37 pm
Apr
13
What is Pink Slime (Beef) & How to Avoid It?
Categories:
Cuts of Beefby admin
. Last night I was watching the season premiere of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. One of the points in this episode was to learn where your food comes from. This led him to the topic of pink slime. What is pink slime? Whenever a cow is butchered there are pieces that are cut off that aren’t considered for human consumption. There is a greater risk for E. coli and other nasty stuff in those parts of the cow. It use to be mainly just for pet food. A dog’s stomach can handle the kind of stuff ours can’t. However now this pink slime is ending up in our foods. Using a centrifuge they can separate the fat from the meat. Once they salvage this meat, there still is the concern of potential illness in humans. So to make sure that won’t be a problem, they pull out a chemical – ammonia. Yes, the meat industry actually uses ammonia to kill anything that might be in the meat and the FDA is perfect ok with this. In fact, they are so ok with it that no one has to list on their labels that ammonia was ever used. The meat industry convinced the FDA, that the ammonia is just a “processing agent”. There is some limits put on pink slime. You can’t use more than 15% of it in ground beef. So it’s basically just used as a filler, but the filler saves the meat industry some serious dough.
I am not a scientist, but I can’t imagine putting ammonia in your body can be good for you. So how do you avoid this kind of beef? Good news is that McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell have all stopped using pink slime (which means they were using it in the first place). But that doesn’t mean all fast food places stopped using it. You may also encounter it at the grocery store. You should never ever buy ground beef labeled as hamburger. That is almost a guarantee that you will be getting some grounded up pink slime in there.
How Can You Tell if You are Getting Pink Slime?
You really can’t tell when you are getting it, but you can tell when you are not getting it. Companies aren’t required to say they used pink slime in a product. So the only way to read that something 100% from whatever part of the cow (100% ground chuck or ground sirloin for example). And if can’t be guaranteed that it’s 100%, the way to know for sure, is to have a butcher grind the meat for you, right in front of you, so you can see what is going in it. There are places they will do this. Another option would be to grind the meat yourself. You can get a hand powered meat grinder or if you have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer you can buy an meat grinder attachment. It’s important to know what is really in your food. Don’t take it for granted. And when in doubt, grind it yourself or with the help of your neighborhood butcher.
For more on pink slime, check out the food documentary – Food Inc. Also check out this report from a CBS news.
Someone told me about pink slime so I googled it and found this......I can't believe my child has been eating this whenever he eats a chiken nugget!!! :yh_sick
13
What is Pink Slime (Beef) & How to Avoid It?
Categories:
Cuts of Beefby admin
. Last night I was watching the season premiere of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. One of the points in this episode was to learn where your food comes from. This led him to the topic of pink slime. What is pink slime? Whenever a cow is butchered there are pieces that are cut off that aren’t considered for human consumption. There is a greater risk for E. coli and other nasty stuff in those parts of the cow. It use to be mainly just for pet food. A dog’s stomach can handle the kind of stuff ours can’t. However now this pink slime is ending up in our foods. Using a centrifuge they can separate the fat from the meat. Once they salvage this meat, there still is the concern of potential illness in humans. So to make sure that won’t be a problem, they pull out a chemical – ammonia. Yes, the meat industry actually uses ammonia to kill anything that might be in the meat and the FDA is perfect ok with this. In fact, they are so ok with it that no one has to list on their labels that ammonia was ever used. The meat industry convinced the FDA, that the ammonia is just a “processing agent”. There is some limits put on pink slime. You can’t use more than 15% of it in ground beef. So it’s basically just used as a filler, but the filler saves the meat industry some serious dough.
I am not a scientist, but I can’t imagine putting ammonia in your body can be good for you. So how do you avoid this kind of beef? Good news is that McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell have all stopped using pink slime (which means they were using it in the first place). But that doesn’t mean all fast food places stopped using it. You may also encounter it at the grocery store. You should never ever buy ground beef labeled as hamburger. That is almost a guarantee that you will be getting some grounded up pink slime in there.
How Can You Tell if You are Getting Pink Slime?
You really can’t tell when you are getting it, but you can tell when you are not getting it. Companies aren’t required to say they used pink slime in a product. So the only way to read that something 100% from whatever part of the cow (100% ground chuck or ground sirloin for example). And if can’t be guaranteed that it’s 100%, the way to know for sure, is to have a butcher grind the meat for you, right in front of you, so you can see what is going in it. There are places they will do this. Another option would be to grind the meat yourself. You can get a hand powered meat grinder or if you have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer you can buy an meat grinder attachment. It’s important to know what is really in your food. Don’t take it for granted. And when in doubt, grind it yourself or with the help of your neighborhood butcher.
For more on pink slime, check out the food documentary – Food Inc. Also check out this report from a CBS news.
Someone told me about pink slime so I googled it and found this......I can't believe my child has been eating this whenever he eats a chiken nugget!!! :yh_sick