Ammonia-Tainted ‘Pink Slime’ Ravaging US Meat Products
Recently, the pink slime scrap meat used by McDonald’s to make various forms of ‘food’ was exposed, and its use subsequently came to a halt. A lazy public statement was issued, calling the pink slime “selective lean beef trimmings treated with ammonia that is a safe product”
These ‘lean beef trimmings’ are what’s left after all the muscular cuts of beef have been taken from a cow. Experts state that the meat is not muscle, but fat trimmings and connective tissue that are separated from the bone – scrap meat that is not fit for human consumption.
The trimmings are then treated with an ammonia solution in an attempt to kill whatever may be lurking in it. The product is then minced into the now infamous pink slime, a pseudo meat replacement with no nutritional value whatsoever.
Since the alarm has been raised, McDonald’s and others have been urged to cease use of the product. Despite this, this pseudo meat is used in over 70% of ground beef products in supermarkets around the country. Along with the widescale use in supermarkets, the USDA has purchased 7 million pounds of the product to be used in school lunch programs nationwide.
Not only does the meat provide no nutritional value at all, but it is chemically contaminated from ammonia, the toxic cleaning agent found under the sink. The ammonia treatment is in response to the danger of contamination from salmonella or E. coli. The scrap meats themselves are more likely to contain pathogens, and despite the chemical treatment, they are still hardly safe or free from contamination.
This slime is used in many products, but is virtually impossible to track down because there is no nutrition labeling for it. There has also been little attention given to the dangerous chemical process used to attempt to render the slime as safe. The McDonald’s statement points out that this product has been regulated and “used for decades.”
Any efforts to make it safe or nutritionally viable are in vain however, as the base ingredients, the process used, and the end result are all high risk while providing no actual food value. Any attempt to feed this to growing children and teens should be met with a similar outcry, and effectively rebuked and replaced with a legitimate program for healthy foods and real nutrition.
