Tag Archives: Pink Slime

Pink Slime is Back: Why do School Districts Continue to Serve Dreadful Byproduct?

It’s baaaack. Pink slime, an ammonia and beef byproduct that spurred one of the most talked about controversies in 2024, is being reintroduced to school lunches now that the media spotlight has dimmed. School districts in Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are patiently waiting for their pink slime burgers to ship from the USDA, all to save mere pennies on the dollar.

pink patty

Shocking as that may sound, schools in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota never stopped serving the pseudo beef. Beef Product Incorporated is the company that makes and sells pink slime, formally known as “ammonia-treated lean finely textured beef,” or LFTB. In layman’s, LFTB is unwanted bits of cow mixed with ammonia and sent through a centrifuge—just like mom used to make. This process was invented by Beef Product Inc to help get the most possible product out of cows. Then, they sell it for cheap, hence the reason school districts bought it in the first place—to save money.

(more…)

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Patrick

More Stores Stop Selling Ground Beef with Pink Slime

Ground beef that includes what the meat industry calls lean, finely textured beef, or pink slime, has been getting a lot of media coverage lately. Consumers have been avidly asking questions about which grocery stores sell it so that they can avoid it. As consumers continue to voice their concern, grocers are listening.

Safeway, SUPERVALU and Food Lion are the latest grocery stores to make the announcement that they will discontinue carrying ground beef that includes pink slime. Safeway released a statement saying, “While the USDA and food industry experts agree that lean, finely textured ground beef is safe and wholesome, recent news stories have caused considerable consumer concern about this product. Safeway will no longer purchase ground beef containing lean, finely textured beef.”

The list of grocers that are issuing statements regarding their ground beef and whether or not it contains pink slime is growing.

While Safeway is the second largest grocery chain in the country, SUPERVALU is the third largest chain. SUPERVALU controls various grocery stores including Albertson’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Jewel-Osco, Hornbacher’s and others. Some other heavy hitters like Walmart and Sam’s Club have also made recent announcements that they would stop selling beef that includes pink slime. The nation’s largest grocery store chain is Kroger and they currently offer beef options with and without the product.

(more…)

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Descygna

Pink Slime is No Longer Our Schools’ Only Choice

Score one for our team! Announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, school districts that receive food through the government’s school lunch program will now be allowed to say no to pink slime. The ammonia-treated beef filler will not be the only meat choice for school lunches. Filler free meat will now also be an option.

This change was relatively quick. Pink slime has been used for nearly 20 years in our school’s meat and most processed meat products. Jamie Oliver exposed these truths to the nation over the summer during his Food Revolution show. Once the truth behind this product was discovered, a furious online campaign began among parents and concerned citizens. Quickly, large chain restaurants quit using the product and now our schools will get a better choice.

The USDA is contracted to buy 111.5 million pounds of ground beef for the National School Lunch Program this year and about 7 million pounds of that is from Beef Products Inc., which is a large producer of the low-cost filler. However, come next fall, school menus will be allowed to change to pink slime-free meat.
(more…)

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Lacy

Ag-Gag Bills Will Keep Food Preparation Methods Secret

Pink slime has been making headlines a lot lately. As most consumers are learning the truth about the food they’re putting in their mouths, the government is apparently getting nervous.

If you haven’t read the truth about this product called pink slime that is making up the majority of the meat served in this country, you should really inform yourself.

Microbiologist Carl Custer gives an excellent definition of pink slime. Custer explains how the substance is primarily connective tissue and gristle, the texture is simply manipulated mechanically and the flavor altered chemically to fool you into thinking it’s meat.

“It’s not meat. We call it Soylent Pink,” Custer said, who has worked with the Food Safety Inspection Service for 35 years.

(more…)

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Lacy

USDA Allows Beef Trimmings into Packaged Ground Beef and School Lunches

Would you like any pink slime in your hamburger, sir? I wouldn’t think so.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture is allowing this suspicious substance into the packaged ground beef being served in school lunches across America, according to a recent article from The Daily.

Two former microbiologists for the Food Safety Inspection Service, Carl Custer and Gerald Zirnstein, believe they have reason to be concerned about this “pink slime.” Zirnstein discovered the pink matter in 2002 while touring a Beef Products Inc. production facility as part of a ground beef salmonella investigation.

So what is exactly is the stuff? BPI’s ‘Lean Beef Trimmings’ reportedly consist of connective tissue and beef scraps that are normally produced for dog food and rendering and are treated with ammonia hydroxide to kill pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. (more…)

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Dana

The Doctors Reveal What’s Really in Your Food

With the help of recent documentaries, TV shows and legislation, Americans are becoming more aware of just what really is lurking in their favorite foods. But, even with this knowledge, people are still being served processed foods full of chemicals, preservatives and artificial flavors, all deemed safe by the government.

On Monday, February 27, The Doctors, with special guest and celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, will take a closer look at the harmful additives and processes used to prepare many of the foods we eat every day.

Amongst the foods spotlighted are:

Burgers. Fast food burgers are comprised of “pink slime,” the term given to the mechanically separated meat that has been treated with ammonia hydroxide to kill bacterias like E-coli. Top fast food restaurants say they have discontinued their use of this meat, made from discarded cow parts, but schools still serve it up daily to our kids.

(more…)

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Kelly

Fast Food Chains Removing Pink Slime from their Hamburgers

McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King announced they are officially dropping the use of Pink Slime in their food. Wait?! What? They were using something called Pink Slime?

Yes, not only were these major chains using the slime, but 70 percent of all the burgers in the United States contain the ingredient, too.

Pink Slime is the name given to ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings. It’s an inexpensive beef filler. However, Pink Slime is unfit for human consumption until it is gassed with ammonia. McDonald’s and the other big chains are discontinuing their use of the slime after celebrity chef Jamie Oliver launched a campaign of criticism about the ingredient. Oliver brought the truth of the slime to the public’s eyes during his ABC television show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Oliver explained how the filler is cheaply sold as dog food, but after the ammonia gassing, it can be served to humans. One of the biggest frustrations about the slime is that it is widely used in school lunches.
(more…)

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Lacy