Pink Slime

[gfweb]

Could've also been certain bacteria that make ammonia. There's quite a few ammonia producers out there. Many are part of our bowel flora.

[tonyrocks922]

One of the pink slime producers is declaring bankruptcy, and they blame the negative publicity:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-03/afa-foods-bankruptcy-sale-won-t-cover-debt-lawyer-says.html

[annabelle]

Of course they're blaming the negative publicity. Nothing like being hounded out of business to make one a tad bitter.

[IndyRob]

I like that this practice has finally come out in the open if only because now my partner doesn't think I'm really nuts (maybe just a little nuts). You see, I opened up a package of ground beef about a year ago and there was quite the strong smell of ammonia from it. I had never come across that before and was alarmed. My partner said it was all in my head. I thought maybe it was all in my head. I went ahead and cooked it because I couldn't justify throwing it out, and as far as I remember, it didn't taste any different. Now I would take it back to the store.

Confirmation bias

Have you bought any more ground beef in the last year?

[CaliPoutine]

just another reason I'm glad I dont eat beef.

[CaliPoutine]

the LA Times just reported that Kroger has joined a number of other large chains that have dropped products which include it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-pink-slime-20120322,0,1133733.story

Ch. 9 yesterday afternoon had a segment on it that stated Safeway/Vons and Costco were cancelling it and Ralphs was "considering" it.

Kroger is the parent company of Ralph's. I hope they drop it too.

[andiesenji]

All the local TV news programs had segments about a Vernon,CA meat plant filing for bankruptcy "because of the pink slime backlash."

The company was already in financial trouble.

What I don't understand is, we are constantly told that the pet food industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Why can't this company simply go back to supplying the stuff to pet food manufacturers (the ones that aren't in China).

And if it is such a "small percentage" of the overall ground meat product, (as industry pundits keep saying) why don't they just continue to process beef without the pink slime?

To me, this looks like there must have been a lot more pink slime in the final product that anyone is admitting to, so far.

[GlorifiedRice]

What did they think was going to happen if you call it Pink SLIME?

[rotuts]

I still wonder what the 'major chains,' ( ie safeway etc) put the stuff in?

was it in their 'fresh ground beef?'

I can understand discount and club stores (Sam's, etc) buying the stuff for those large frozen tubes and bricks: check their prices.

In my area, there is a local chain, family owned, and their cheapest 'fresh ground' beef is 4.99 to 5.99 a pound.

I also can't imagine the stuff being tossed, as margins are so thin. It either goes into pet food, or cheap hot dogs. The labels on those say 'beef.'

Edited April 4, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[gfweb]

Here's a link to what FDA says can be added to food. I'm actually a little relieved, it doesn't look too bad. But remember pink slime fits into the approved list.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Additives_in_Meat_&_Poultry_Products/index.asp

[dcarch]

Random thoughts:

1. The more animal (beef) parts we don't eat, the more cows we will have to kill and higher prices for meat.

2. Areas with The longest life span, are areas where people don't care about organic foods.

dcarch

[GlorifiedRice]

I also can't imagine the stuff being tossed, as margins are so thin. It either goes into pet food, or cheap hot dogs. The labels on those say 'beef.'

Or into the beef varietes of frozen dinners, like meatloaf or salisbury steak

[Mjx]

Random thoughts:

. . . .

2. Areas with The longest life span, are areas where people don't care about organic foods.

dcarch

I'm a little curious about which locations you mean, and the source of information regarding indifference to organic food.

[tikidoc]

Random thoughts:

1. The more animal (beef) parts we don't eat, the more cows we will have to kill and higher prices for meat.

2. Areas with The longest life span, are areas where people don't care about organic foods.

dcarch

1. Where did those scraps go before the recent invention of "pink slime"? This is a recent thing, and I don't remember beef prices decreasing as a result of beef processors being able to pass this stuff off as "ground beef". Besides, beef prices are kept artificially low due to all the farm subsidies for corn in the US. As a taxpayer, I am getting tired of my dollars being funneled to companies like Monsanto. I would not have a problem with beef prices increasing - Americans eat too much of it anyway.

2. Not saying this statement is incorrect (or correct for that matter) but please provide a source for this statement.

This kind of crap is why we raise our own beef. It would not qualify as organic but it is almost exclusively grass fed. We use no hormones. We do not use feed with antibiotics, although I would not hesitate to treat an infection in an animal using antibiotics (and would wait the appropriate time before butchering). So to me, it is not so much an organic label that is important, is it know how the food is raised, as much as possible. I would venture to say that my officially non-organic but grass fed beef is both tastier and healthier than the corn-fed but organic beef in the store, with a smaller carbon footprint.

I would highly recommend reading any of the books on farming by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. He's a little out there at times but many of the techniques he uses for farming could be used on a larger scale to raise healthier food without the negative environmental impact. It won't replace factory farming but every little bit helps.

[gfweb]

shark jumped

http://eater.com/archives/2012/04/04/colbert-colbologizes-for-transgendered-pink-slime-joke.php

[LRunkle]

I am disgusted with the reactions of theoretically sophisticated forum members to the term "pink slime". If you have been consuming ground beef from a source and found it acceptable or even tasty and have now found out it contains "pink slime" and changed your mind you remind me of someone who eats a dish and likes it until they are informed it contains anchovies or liver.

If the "pink slime" additive is healthy for you what difference should it make? Would this subject be hot topic if some PR activist had not thought up the term "pink slime". I am reminded of the campaign against farmed Atlantic salmon hybrids using the name "Frankenfish". Instead of an intelligent discussion of the pros and cons, we have a visceral reaction stirred up deliberately by negative marketing term. Those who accept the concept of eating the cow from nose to tail(now trendy) should welcome the conaervation of beef parts which would otherwise have gone to waste.

[Paul Kierstead]

Outside of the ammonia (and that is a fairly sizable "outside of"), I can't see how it can be argued that it isn't ground beef. You are buying a beef product, clearly processed; grinding it very fine and separating out the fat doesn't make it any less ground. Unless the product listed a specific process, you have no real grounds to complain; expecting it to be ground like you mother did is unreasonable. If you want it like your mother did it, then do it like your mother did, you can't expect some product in a store to be that (whether is says "home-style" or not).

Again, outside of the ammonia (and I don't know the health implications of that), feeding this to your children may be giving them poor quality beef, but I can't see how it could be construed as dangerous assuming the beef has the same bacteria counts, etc. that slime-less beef has, and I've yet to see facts presented that say it is systemically bad (naturally there will be cases where it is bad, just like there are cases where spinach is bad, due to poor handling and inspection).

[Mjx]

I am disgusted with the reactions of theoretically sophisticated forum members to the term "pink slime". If you have been consuming ground beef from a source and found it acceptable or even tasty and have now found out it contains "pink slime" and changed your mind you remind me of someone who eats a dish and likes it until they are informed it contains anchovies or liver.

If the "pink slime" additive is healthy for you what difference should it make? Would this subject be hot topic if some PR activist had not thought up the term "pink slime". I am reminded of the campaign against farmed Atlantic salmon hybrids using the name "Frankenfish". Instead of an intelligent discussion of the pros and cons, we have a visceral reaction stirred up deliberately by negative marketing term. Those who accept the concept of eating the cow from nose to tail(now trendy) should welcome the conaervation of beef parts which would otherwise have gone to waste.

While objectivity can't be overemphasized, to be fair, a lot of people do have fairly visceral reactions when it comes to food, and I'm not so sure what percent of consumers (even eG members) are on board with the nose-to-tail thing.

I mentioned up-thread that the actual anatomical portions involved don't particularly trouble me, but I should add that the fact that the pathogen count is evidently so high that ammonia is deemed necessary in processing it is bit disturbing. And I'm with pretty much everyone who noted that, at the very least, they want to know what they're eating; sometimes you feel like a nut (sorry, 'testicle'), sometimes... you don't

[dcarch]

Random thoughts:

. . . .

2. Areas with The longest life span, are areas where people don't care about organic foods.

dcarch

I'm a little curious about which locations you mean, and the source of information regarding indifference to organic food.

I just Google "life span/expectance by country"

dcarch

[Mjx]

Random thoughts:

. . . .

2. Areas with The longest life span, are areas where people don't care about organic foods.

dcarch

I'm a little curious about which locations you mean, and the source of information regarding indifference to organic food.

I just Google "life span/expectance by country"

dcarch

But those are predictions, extrapolations based on trends, and still don't indicate anything about the food consumed by the portion of a given country's population that actually reaches anything close to that age.

[Paul Kierstead]

I just Google "life span/expectance by country"

Oh come now, that isn't even remotely valid to your assertion. Many of those countries have very significantly different farming practices and regulations, different eating habits, etc. Their focus on "organic" may well be different, but partly because half the stuff US agri gets up to isn't legal there anyway, or not an issue in the first place. And their life expectancy are very tied up in availability of health care, diet etc. Correlating that to the concern over organic is utter hogwash. Or pink slime, or something...

[gfweb]

Even without references, I suspect that dcarch is right. Choice of parent has more to do with longevity than choice of diet. Not that diet can't improve things, but if longevity is the goal then genes rule.

No I don't have references.

[dcarch]

I just Google "life span/expectance by country"

Oh come now, that isn't even remotely valid to your assertion. Many of those countries have very significantly different farming practices and regulations, different eating habits, etc. Their focus on "organic" may well be different, but partly because half the stuff US agri gets up to isn't legal there anyway, or not an issue in the first place. And their life expectancy are very tied up in availability of health care, diet etc. Correlating that to the concern over organic is utter hogwash. Or pink slime, or something...

I have been to two of those places, Hongkong and Macao. They only import farmed seafood from China, pesticized produce, MSG in dishes, ----etc. No health care system in those places.

dcarch

Edited April 4, 2012 by dcarch (log)

[Paul Kierstead]

So, the fact they eat a great deal of sea food (not beef) and maintain much lower levels of obesity is not a leading factor? What is your point? They are shorter too. Does that mean shorter people live longer?

[Paul Kierstead]

Also, "Macau has a universally accessible single-payer system funded by taxes collected by the government from corporations and residents." (wikipedia). Hong Kong heavily subsidises health care.