Yummy!!!!! The Return of Pink Slime!

You heard right, ATS! It's the return of Pink Slime, the food additive made from beef slaughter scraps that are mixed with ammonia or citric acid. I'm sure there has already been extensive coverage of it here on ATS so I won't dig too deep into the specifics concerning its history but I'll post a link from Wikipedia for those who want to know about it more:


Wikipedia:

it was used as a food additive to ground beef and beef-based processed meats as a filler, at a ratio of usually no more than 25 percent of any product. The production process uses heat in centrifuges to separate the fat from the meat in beef trimmings.[11] The resulting product is exposed to ammonia gas or citric acid to kill bacteria.[11][12]

en.wikipedia.org...

The additive was coined “pink slime” by former USDA scientist Gerald Zirnstein, who told ABC News in 2012 that “pink slime” was “not fresh ground beef” but a “cheap substitute being added in.” At the time, he said 70% of the ground beef sold in the nation’s supermarkets contained “pink slime." The product is made by separating the fat out from meat scraps and treating what's left with ammonia or citric acid to kill bacteria.

Following the public outcry, many food establishments, including McDonald’s (MCD), Kroger (KR) and Safeway (SWY), said they would no longer use “pink slime.” The Department of Agriculture said its school lunch program would stop serving it to students. As demand plummeted, the two largest producers of the ingredient, Beef Products Inc. and Cargill Inc., were forced to close plants and eliminate hundreds of jobs.

Beef Manufacturers have cited a rise in beef prices as the reason for Pink Slime's return into our kitchens and dinner-plates. My conspiracy brain is telling my left and right brain(s) that there's more to it than just a rise in beef prices. What says ATS?

I'm thinking ... you need more poison in your diet.

a reply to: lostbook

Be careful! /sarcasm

Beef Products Inc. sued ABC News, Inc. for defamation Thursday over its coverage of a meat product that critics dub "pink slime," claiming the network damaged the company by misleading consumers into believing it is unhealthy and unsafe.

The Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based meat processor is seeking $1.2 billion in damages for roughly 200 "false and misleading and defamatory" statements about the product officially known as lean, finely textured beef, said Dan Webb, BPI's Chicago-based attorney.

Pink Slime Maker Sues ABC News For $1.2 Billion: Lawsuit Accuses Network Of Defamation

Not sure how the law suit ended up, it may still be in the system.

Anyhow, I sure as hell don't want to eat anything that has been treated with ammonia! I use it to clean, NOT ingest!

Money talks. Find out who is using it and don't buy their crap. It's worth an extra buck to get good beef. It's even cheaper if you know how to butcher your own.
If you're eating Mickey D's or Jack in the Crack, you have no grounds to complain.

I've said it many times: If you didn't bleed it our yourself or don't personally know the person who did, you have no idea what you're putting in your mouth

I've been either slaughtering my own or eating game for about three years now and I can't go back.

a reply to: lostbook

You're going to get sued by the Iowa Cattleman's Association or Beef Products, Inc (BPI) if you keep it up! There is something wrong with eating crap, that is potentially so contaminated, that it has to be treated with ammonia gas. I remember from a couple year's back that the majority of large fastfood chains were using it (McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell for sure) but that Wendy's was not. Supposedly, they all stopped due to negative press.

The other place you're most likely to see it is in frozen food.

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: lostbook

Be careful! /sarcasm

You beat me to it! They will sue to keep people from figuring out what they're eating and being grossed out.

a reply to: lostbook

Buy organic ground beef. If you want to make a burger, throw an egg in the mix.

a reply to: seeker1963

Not sure how the law suit ended up, it may still be in the system.

Looks like it's still a ways out:

The company is embroiled in a sweeping defamation lawsuit in Union County Circuit Court in South Dakota against the network, star anchor Diane Sawyer and other defendants, and is seeking at least $1.2 billion in damages. Attorneys for both BPI and the network have proposed a trial date of February 2017. (Source)

I was still watching ABC news at the time they were running these stories, and I wasn't surprised that they got sued. The pieces were incredibly slanted. One can debate whether getting this stuff out of the food chain is a good thing or not, I'd say that it is, but ABC set out to drive these guys out of business.

a reply to: adjensen

Thanks for looking that up!

2017? WOW!

Apparently BPI hasn't showered our elected officials in Washington DC with enough money yet?

a reply to: lostbook
Someone inform me why we are the Mercy of #ing Bastards on a daily basis in everything we do.
2nd Question, why do we take it?
3rd Question, what can we do to rid the planet of them?

a reply to: skunkape23

It's sick..! No matter how you slice it......pun intneded.

I would like to see a link in the OP with the article that says it is being used again. Either way I am glad I use a local butcher that sources his meat from nearby farms. No slime for me, please.

ETA: Still waiting for a link in the OP to an article saying pink slime is back in use...is there one?

originally posted by: Metallicus
I would like to see a link in the OP with the article that says it is being used again. Either way I am glad I use a local butcher that sources his meat from nearby farms. No slime for me, please.

ETA: Still waiting for a link in the OP to an article saying pink slime is back in use...is there one?

Sorry about that. Will post link as soon as I get home.

Anyone else sick of, when an unethical corporation is called out on their garbage and they have to close plants/cut jobs, that there is an undercurrent of martyrdom present?

Every time, I imagine it's like a hostage taker who shoots someone and blames the police for interfering. I'd love it if in cases like this there was a payout multiplier to the people who get fired...call it a dirtbag corporation tax.

originally posted by: Metallicus
I would like to see a link in the OP with the article that says it is being used again. Either way I am glad I use a local butcher that sources his meat from nearby farms. No slime for me, please.

ETA: Still waiting for a link in the OP to an article saying pink slime is back in use...is there one?

Here ya go. Check it out!

finance.yahoo.com...

Pink slime is not unhealthy, it won't make you sick if you eat something with it in it occasionally. It just does not contribute what we need, degrading the nutritional value of what you eat compared to if it was pure meat. I have issues with wet aging myself, that chemistry is not the best way to age meats. I am also more concerned of the diet fed to the cows. I think someone threw a flaming arrow at pink slime to draw our focus away from the real problems with meat.

Now, I am not saying it is safe to eat a lot of pink slime, just an occasional burger. It really is no different than what they do to cheap hot dogs or some lunchmeats. Eat too much of those and it isn't good either.

They should have to list this in the ingredients though, calling it beef is a lie.

a reply to: rickymouse

They should have to list this in the ingredients though, calling it beef is a lie.

I agree that it should be listed, but, no, it is beef. The process by which something is made doesn't change what it is.

That was my complaint with the ABC News pieces -- the Food and Drug Administration has said that what the company is producing is fine, and their definition of "lean, finely textured beef" is accurate -- that's exactly what it is.

Concerns should be directed at the FDA for allowing this to be on the market, ABC News has no place trying to run a company out of business because they are producing a legal product.

a reply to: adjensen

I'll keep buying my beef from a local farmer. At least I know what I am buying and what the cows are eating.

It's funny, if you go to a non-industrialized country and order hamburger, you probably get burger made from real grass fed beef. But here in America you get beef full of antibiotics, corn fed, genetically inferior Angus that fart a lot beef that has been unnaturally aged and cut with pink slime then wrapped in plastic that contains endocrine disruptors. Boy are we technologically advanced here in America.