Education Tax Credit Program Ruled Unconstitutional in New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Superior Court ruled this week that the state’s new education tax credit... Read More
School Cafeterias Continue to Use ‘Pink Slime’ Meat Product
Despite being spurned by the biggest fast food restauras, the USDA has purchased 7 million pounds of “pink slime” for inclusion in school lunches.
McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell have all stopped using Lean Beef Trimming, the quasi-foodstuff known colloquially as ‘pink slime’. While these outlets are not exactly known as culinary luminaries, this was a common-sense measure that could be applauded. However, the USDA is planning to buy 7 million pounds of this tasty stuff for use in the national school lunch program.
Made by grinding together connective tissue and beef scraps normally destined for dog food and rendering, BPI’s Lean Beef Trimmings are then treated with ammonia hydroxide, a process that kills pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli.
The resulting pinkish substance is later blended into traditional ground beef and hamburger patties.
Microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein coined the term ‘pink slime’ in 2002 and a decade later is still adamant that the product isn’t really meat. Now a father himself, he’s keen to make sure his two year old son doesn’t have to eat pink slime when he starts attending school.
Carl Custer, also a microbiologist with 35 years experience at the Food Safety Inspection Service, agrees with Zirnstein that pink slime isn’t meat and that the connective tissue used is not nutritionally equivalent to muscle. Together they classified the trimmings as a ‘high risk product’ but their findings were ignored — and continue to be ignored. The USDA has recently declared that all their ground beef purchases ‘meet the highest standard for food safety’.
“The word in the office was that undersecretary JoAnn Smith pushed it through, and that was that,” Custer said.
Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, Smith had deep ties with the beef industry, serving as president of both the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the of the National Cattlemen’s Association.
“Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval,” Zirnstein said.
The problem is made worse by current labeling laws that consider it to be a raw material that doesn’t need to be uniquely labeled. In other words, a company can sell you a ground beef product that can have up to 15% pink slime in it and neither have to acknowledge the fact nor mention that an ammonia additive was used during production.
The USDA has stated that pink slime makes up 6.5% of its ground beef purchases for the school lunch program, which is high enough to mean that your child is probably going to consume it.
ABC News reported that the pink slime is even more ubiquitous than we think. 70 percent of supermarket ground beef contains the gelatinous additive, even though no mention of this filler is required on the label.
Correction: This article originally featured a photo purported to be ‘pink slime’/lean beef trimmings, but was actually similarly-processed chicken. The photo has been corrected to feature lean beef trimmings.
Recent News
Parents Pump $5-7 Billion Annually into Growing Tutoring Industry
Tutoring programs offering additional out-of-school instruction to students are drawing a growing... Read More
Microsoft Discounts Surface Tablets for Education Market
Microsoft is looking to take a bite out of Apple’s controlling share of the education... Read More
Popular News
James Shuls: Why We Need School Choice 26
The Pedagogical Agenda of Common Core Math Standards 25
Julia Steiny: 5th Graders Having a Blast with Algebra 14
Career Index
Plan your career as an educator using our free online datacase of useful information.
- Select a City Subject
- Hotel Management Schools in Champaign
- Hotel Management Schools in Chicago
- Hotel Management Schools in Elgin
- Hotel Management Schools in Glen Ellyn
- Hotel Management Schools in Joliet
- Hotel Management Schools in Palatine
- Hotel Management Schools in River Grove
- Hotel Management Schools in Springfield
- Liberal Arts Schools in Bowling Green
- Liberal Arts Schools in Cedarville
- Liberal Arts Schools in Cleveland
- Liberal Arts Schools in Defiance
- Liberal Arts Schools in Findlay
- Liberal Arts Schools in Toledo
- Liberal Arts Schools in Youngstown
Comments
If USDA is buying it, you can be sure there’s a big kickback involved. The entire department is in the pocket of the agribusiness.
Joe and I agree on something. Sound the alarm and check hell’s temperture.
It all comes down to greed. Kind of scary when you can’t trust the USDA, FDA, etc. Just how they get away without labeling this stuff is plain ludicrous. I had no clue this was going on. NO more hamburger in my house!
Sure makes me glad I bought that grinder and grind my own. No commercially produced hamburger here.
[...] Just kidding everyone, but real talk this is something that anyone who has children who attend public schools. If you are a parent that is aware of this issue this will be just a reiteration for you. If you don’t know about this issue you will be appalled that US Department of Agriculture offering ammonia-treated ground beef filler for our children to consume during their lunch time. The scientific name for this kind of ground beef is called LFTB, Lean Finely Textured Beef, also known as ‘pink slime‘. [...]
I am in food distribution and firmly believe that LFTB needs to be declared on the label. The problem I have here is the photo attached to this article. It is a chicken product used in making chicken nuggets. Please do some research before you attach a picture to an article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/pink-slime-photo-isnt-what-it-appears-to-be/2012/03/09/gIQApJJd1R_blog.html
Dan,
Our apologies for presenting a photo of the wrong type of meat slurry.
The schools shouldn’t use pink slime meat product because it can make the kids and teachers really sick and the schools probably wouldn’t care and they would still continue using it.Looking at the picture is making me sick and image just eating it and looking at it the same time.I don’t get why the schools aren’t stopping the school cafeterias using pink slime meat product.I know that they want to get money but this isn’t the way to do it.I also think that they should label it so that people can know what’s inside the pink slime meat product.
what is wrong with the jerk who approves this stuff
He or she doesn’t have to eat it.
I work at Beef Products, Inc., one of the companies that make the lean beef referred to improperly in this article. This story/post contains several inaccuracies that have been repeated from one place to the next. One of the most grossly false claims made by this article and many others is the use of the picture above to depict Lean Beef Trimmings. In fact, the product shown about is mechanically separated chicken. Our 95% Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings are beef and in no way resembles the product you erroneously included above. “Pink Slime” doesn’t exist. Based on a cursory read of the story/post, I counted a vast amount of inaccuracies including the use of said picture. While I’m not able to stay active on this site in order to engage in any further conversation with readers on these inaccuracies, better information about BPI and our lean beef can be found at http://www.beefproducts.com and more information about the grossly inaccurate material being said about us at http://www.pinkslimeisamyth.com.
Among other things, on that site you’ll be able to hear from people who have actually seen our process, including a mother who lost her only child to E.coli O157:H7 poisoning. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/03/in-defense-of-food-safety-leadership/ Please read all the facts and her story before you pass judgment.
Oh the US government would never do anything that would cause you harm. Yeah right!
is there any evidence that this “pink slurry” is dangerous? Sounds disgusting, but, I’ve always assumed that Mcdonald’s hamburgers aren’t made from Grade A beef. And what about hotdogs? I don’t want to know what’s in them to be honest. What i did read stated that the “pink slurry” is treated to eliminate the possibility of salmonella. I’ll take the “pink slurry” over the food poisoning, thank you. Good public info, just not sure that it needs to be illegal. Anyway, what would make this article more informative: some actual data showing that the product is harmful; not just “gross”.
[...] textured beef” or “boneless lean beef trimmings.” U.S. Government scientist Gerald Zirnstein, who coined the term in 2002, calls it, “pink slime.” Whatever you call it, until recently it was ubiquitous, appearing in [...]
[...] (BPI), makers of the slime. Many grocery stores have vowed to remove products containing it and educators and parents are calling for schools to do the same. Who’s the blame them? I nearly barfed the first time I saw that image [...]
[...] (BPI), makers of the slime. Many grocery stores have vowed to remove products containing it and educators and parents are calling for schools to do the same. Who’s to blame them? I nearly barfed the first time I saw that image [...]
[...] sourced meats and produce? That sh*t is still delicious. On a side note, the use of so-called pink slime in schools is kind of scary. Let’s focus our attention there instead, and leave my beloved [...]
[...] in 2002, and Carl Custer, another microbiologist who works for the Food Safety Inspection Service agree that the stuff isn’t “meat” and that the connective tissue and gristle that [...]
The safety record of finely textured lean beef is impeccable. Not once in over 20 years has anyone ever gotten sick from it.
Also the photo isn’t beef, it is mechanically seperated chicken, used in hot dogs and chicken nuggets.
And are you also going to call for a ban on gelatin? It is made from the collagen collected after boiling the bones, skin and hides of pigs and cows.
I believe that is among the most significant information for me. And i am satisfied studying your article. However should statement on few basic issues, The site style is great, the articles is really great : D. Good job, cheers