Are you eating off the slaughterhouse floor?

**Little Wing** · 06-25-2011, 11:06 PM

Pink Slime is an ammonia-infused additive that the US federal government has approved to be mixed in with ground beef to make real beef stretch further.

Jamie Oliver's demonstration on the premier of "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" filmed in Los Angeles and aired on April 12, 2011, showed how "nasty pink slime," as one FDA microbiologist calls it, is wrung in a centrifuge to remove the fat from the meat scraps, and then treated with ammonia to "retard spoilage," and turned into "a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips". View the Pink Slime Video Clip

What is Pink Slime?
"Pink slime" (ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings) is the nickname earned by a formerly inedible byproduct of the beef industry. Once used in pet food, it's now a cheap additive in ground beef. Pink Slime is an additive that the federal government has approved to be mixed in with ground beef. To make "real" beef stretch further, manufacturers can use this ammonia-infused beef as up to 15 percent of the product. Pink slime is now an additive in 70% of the ground beef in the U.S., which means that if you’re eating a burger, there’s a good chance you’re also eating Pink Slime.
According to a New York Times article, The "majority of hamburger" now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings "the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil," "typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass" that contains "larger microbiological populations."
With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone. And since the USDA considers it a "process", Ammonia doesn't have to be listed on the packaging as a separate ingredient!

What Does Pink Slime Consist of?
Grist's Tom Philpott explains pink slime this way: it's "the cheapest, least desirable beef on offer - fatty sweepings from the slaughterhouse floor, which are notoriously rife with pathogens like E. coli 0157 and antibiotic-resistant salmonella. (Beef Products, Inc. or BPI) sends the scraps through a series of machines, grinds them into a paste, separates out the fat, and laces the substance with ammonia to kill pathogens."

What Companies Use Ammoniated Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings?
According to the manufacturer Beef Products Inc. in South Dakota, if you're eating a hamburger, odds are very high that it includes their product. Producing more than 7 million pounds a week, the product is included in fast-food burgers and retail packages of ground beef. With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

The USDA allows this ammonia treated meat to enter the marketplace and with no labeling requirement on the packaging to inform the consumer that the meat they are about to buy contains ammonia. This is certainly a rude awakening to the majority of Americans that don't know where the meat in their fridge, the meat in their conventional local grocery store, the meat in their fast food hamburger, and the meat in their restaurant made hamburger comes from.
How to Avoid Eating Pink Slime
The only way to keep the beef trimmings out of your own meals is to know where your beef comes from. Avoiding fast food burgers is a good start, since BPI uses the additive in ground beef for the fast food industry. Hotel and restaurant food isn’t necessarily slime-free though. Avoid prepackaged ground beef in the grocery store, especially in a major chain and ask your favorite burger joint where they get their ground beef. No matter the size of your town or city, grass fed beef (real beef) is not out of reach. Unlike ammonia treated beef, grass fed beef is clearly labeled and contains no ammonia.

Read more: Pink Slime Ammonia-infused Hamburger Additive

**SFW** · 06-26-2011, 01:52 AM

whats the danger?

**withoutrulers** · 06-26-2011, 05:30 AM

the danger is you're being fed sub par food product at the same price, all while not being informed of the slight of hand. Oh, and ammonia is toxic. And so are the bacterial strains that manage to survive the ammonia treatment.

**niki** · 06-26-2011, 07:09 AM

All the more reason to raise your own........seriously, this is what makes me want to buy twenty acres in the boonies, have a garden, raise all of my families own meat, eggs, and dairy products, have the smallest economic footprint possible, while pondering conspiracy theories between the faceless corporate entities and good ol' american gubmint. Do you realize the financial implications of adding 15% of the weight to a product like ground beef, at a slaughter house that runs 100,000 cattle through PER DAY? And this was a previously useless, WASTE product.

I actually did some of the above for most of my kids lives, and my goal is to go back to raising our own asap. For one, it just tastes better, for two - it IS healthier, and more humane for both man/beast, and it works. My boys are HUUUGE. The alternative is to win the lottery and buy pastured grown meats, dairy, and eggs.

What's the danger? Oh good grief! Have you ever seen a video of a slaughter house, or the kill floor? (hint - they are sanitizing poo for you to eat, YUM!) Hey, I bet you like soilent green too, huh?

**tommygunz** · 06-26-2011, 08:33 AM

Our entire food chain in this country is in the shitter and 90% of people are so distanced from what they put on their plate it's pathetic. I will only eat grass fed beef or Bison, free range chicken or wild caught fish. Honestly it is worth the extra $$ for me, but for most Americans this is not even in their thought process. Kudos to Jamie Oliver for not only his efforts, but for realizing that the place to make a difference is in our schools and with our kids.

**jaybTX** · 06-26-2011, 09:03 AM

I moved my family out to the country 5 years ago to get away from the riff-raff that was invading the Houston suburbs after Katrina. We have 37 acres and now raise all of our own meat. We buthchered and vacuum sealed 43 broilers last weekend, just took another bull to a family meat market to be processed, and we kill and process our own domestic pigs. i grew up that way but it was totally foreign to my wife who now has no problem helping out. Her and my kids realize that the animals in our pasture are food not pets. We have a blog if anyone is interested.
-Jason

Originally Posted by niki

All the more reason to raise your own........seriously, this is what makes me want to buy twenty acres in the boonies, have a garden, raise all of my families own meat, eggs, and dairy products, have the smallest economic footprint possible, while pondering conspiracy theories between the faceless corporate entities and good ol' american gubmint. Do you realize the financial implications of adding 15% of the weight to a product like ground beef, at a slaughter house that runs 100,000 cattle through PER DAY? And this was a previously useless, WASTE product.

I actually did some of the above for most of my kids lives, and my goal is to go back to raising our own asap. For one, it just tastes better, for two - it IS healthier, and more humane for both man/beast, and it works. My boys are HUUUGE. The alternative is to win the lottery and buy pastured grown meats, dairy, and eggs.

What's the danger? Oh good grief! Have you ever seen a video of a slaughter house, or the kill floor? (hint - they are sanitizing poo for you to eat, YUM!) Hey, I bet you like soilent green too, huh?

**SFW** · 06-26-2011, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by niki

What's the danger? Oh good grief! Have you ever seen a video of a slaughter house, or the kill floor? (hint - they are sanitizing poo for you to eat, YUM!) Hey, I bet you like soilent green too, huh?

Yes. If i was desperate enough, i would eat it. Its called survival instinct.

**niki** · 06-26-2011, 10:51 AM

Not about survival instinct - it is about profit for the corporations and convenience for the masses. It is about artifically 'cheap' prices for food that wreak havoc on both the land, and our health.

**MDR** · 06-26-2011, 11:06 AM

Miss the days when I always had plenty of venison to eat. Always had lots of friends looking to share the wealth growing up. Cheaper by a long shot, and no mysteries about how it was prepared.

**HialeahChico305** · 06-26-2011, 12:10 PM

So when is the revolution going to start?

**withoutrulers** · 06-29-2011, 05:38 AM

When I get my Ar10 finally assembled, I'll be killing me a couple of moose. Probably will kill some caribou as well. Love wild game meat. Packaged meat tastes old and bland. Any of you all ever eaten a deer heart raw? I have. chewy, warm, wet, and strong taste of iron from the blood.

**lnvanry** · 06-29-2011, 10:53 PM

If it was labelled I'd have no problem with it at all

**SFW** · 06-29-2011, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by withoutrulers

When I get my Ar10 finally assembled, I'll be killing me a couple of moose. Probably will kill some caribou as well. Love wild game meat. Packaged meat tastes old and bland. Any of you all ever eaten a deer heart raw? I have. chewy, warm, wet, and strong taste of iron from the blood.

that sounds pretty good actually. especially if it was a long hunt and you were extremely hungry. Have you ever fucked your kill after a long solo hunt?

**withoutrulers** · 06-30-2011, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by SFW

that sounds pretty good actually. especially if it was a long hunt and you were extremely hungry. Have you ever fucked your kill after a long solo hunt?

I was under the impression that fucking your quarry was the ulterior motive for the hunt. Sort of like a rite of passage, but for my semen.

**cacrv** · 06-30-2011, 09:09 AM

that's disgusting. i had mcdonalds last night.

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