Last month, several grocery store chains agreed to pull the now infamous "pink slime" from their shelves. McDonald's also agreed to stop making their "burgers" with the ammonia-laden product as well as other fast food chains. For those who don't know, Pink Slime is ground beef containing what the meat industry calls "lean, finely textured beef." The low-cost filler is made from fatty meat scraps that are heated to remove most of the fat, then treated with ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. Yum! And hopefully they will never be able to add it back in considering the company manufacturing the stuff, Beef Products Inc., is closing three of its four factories.
Campbell's Food also agreed to remove BPA (a hormone-disruptor) from the lining of their cans. I'm not sure what they are replacing it with, but it doesn't matter to me, I still won't buy their sodium-laden soups. I prefer the real thing!
Now General Mills has reformulated its Yoplait Trix yogurt to remove artificial colors, artificial flavors and high fructose corn syrup. It's a step in the right direction, but the product is still loaded with sugar, which is the contributing factor to 1/3 of children in the US being overweight. I just saw an ad in a magazine for All-Natural CoffeeMate Creamer. I don't know what's in this newer version, but the regular stuff is basically poison in a bottle. More and more companies are hearing our voices and seeing our choices in the form of reduced sales!! We are hitting them where it hurts and this makes me very happy. It's something I have been fighting for the past two years, since beginning this food journey. If our food is healthier, then we don't have to become expert label readers and scientists just to understand what's in our food.
Now, don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of work to be done. We still need to remove genetically-modified organisms, artificial colors and dyes (like the rest of Europe), MSG and chemical preservatives. We are working on removing trans-fats, but they still linger in the form of partially-hydrogenated oils.
We need to remove pthalates' and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals’ ubiquity in kids’ products like plastic toys and snack food packaging. If pink slime teaches us anything, it’s that Big Ag and its industrial food cronies don’t stand a chance against consumers wielding their forks—and their wallets—for good. Vote with your wallet!
Lean Finely Textured Beef is a high quality, lean, 100% beef product. The family owned and operated company that produces it has a food safety record that is above reproach. What we have all been exposed to with this topic is a classic example of media sensationalism aimed at ratings rather than facts. Let's all be good consumers and educate ourselves before we jump on the ban wagon. There are a plenty of credible sources out there we can use to make our own decisions. A well informed consumer has the tools to, and will, make good decisions. And remember "A lie will make it half way around the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on".
ReplyDeleteI am honored by your commitment to your daughters. I am committed to my son as well. He was born 2 months premature as a result of my wife having a hereditary kidney disease. He was 4lbs. 1oz. I could fit him in the palm of my hands. I was scared for several weeks, but did not want my wife, friends or family to know. I have the son that I always dreamed of did not know if you would be "normal" or even survive. So many question and not many answers. As a result of my wife's condition we are urged not have have anymore children. He is almost 4 now, I want him to be healthy, happy and full of life. But I also want him to be a realist. The fact that a company uses technology to create a lean, safer beef it a plus in my book. It seems like people want to paint technology and a evil thing. Without technology, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Have you ever read the affects that E.Coli has on a person? Nancy Donelly, the founder of S.T.O.P, had a son die of E.Coli poisoning at the tender age of 6. In her post, I read how he suffered a horrible death. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Still to this day doctors do not have a way to combat E.Coli. The media has given us a "yuck" factor to point at and blame. It seems to me that all the media really cares about is how a company made money making a safe, affordable ground beef. If you want your children to be healthy, let them go outside and play. After reading the blog you wrote you should look up the definition of the word "bully". It appears to me you and your friends are out to get for profit companies and not fight the real issues. If the public would have gotten the real story and not the fictional version, the owners of Beef Products would be getting award for safety.......Oh, yeah they already have. Its called The Black Pearl Award.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate everyone's comments here and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I did provide an accurate and informed description of what "pink slime" is - lean, finely, textured beef; which I think was a very crafty marketing campaign.
ReplyDeleteI was simply stating the facts that these grocers and fast food restaurants have removed this product. I'm not jumping on any bandwagon - I've been petitioning for the removal of this product and many more for the last two years.
I think it's time that our food supply be free of added chemicals, GMO's, HFCS, MSG, artificial dyes (that are banned in the U.K. already), trans fats, chemical preservatives, etc...Just look around and observe how many people are obese around you or how many people you know that have cancer, heart disease, diabetes, ADHD, food allergies, autoimmune disease, and more. These can all be prevented with proper nutrition!!
An article published in the NY Times in 2009 says this:
"government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays."
That proves that the ammonia hydroxide gas doesn't work 100% of the time. So why add it?
You can help to prevent contamination by sourcing local beef, knowing where your beef comes from, using safe food-handling practices and cooking your food to proper temperatures.
This is a retraction statement from the New York times about Beef Products, Inc;
ReplyDeleteCorrection: January 12, 2010
An editorial on Sunday mischaracterized the safety record of ground meat produced by Beef Products Inc. The editorial said incorrectly that two 27,000-pound batches of processed beef had been recalled. The contamination of the meat was discovered by the company in its plant before the beef was shipped. No meat produced by Beef Products Inc. has been linked to any illnesses or outbreaks.
@Cindy - I am pretty sure that the comment posted on April 16th proves the point, don't always believe what the media tells you!
ReplyDeleteThis is why it is very important to vote with your brain and not your wallet.
@Anonymous - Do/did you work for Beef Products? Are you OK with eating conventional beef that's been treated with ammonia gas? If so, you surely don't fit in with my group of followers who eat clean, whole foods, grass-fed beef and Organic produce. My brain tells me this is better than "finely textured beef" from who knows where...
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ReplyDeleteCindy S- I am an employee of Beef Products. Beef Products is not prejudiced toward any beef. The trim that BPI uses is 100% beef, 100% USDA inspected and FDA approved. Did you know that Beef Products is not a slaughter house, nor do we raise cattle. We are a small, family owned company that makes a safe, nutritious and lean 100% beef. My perception of processed food is they have a large amount of ingredients and additives. I do like fresh grown vegetables and I also enjoy meat of all kinds. Can you help me understand?
ReplyDeleteTeds8910 - Thanks for being honest with me! I'd love to learn more about Beef Products. Do you know how or why your product became known as "pink slime?" The finely textured beef - what is it? Trimmings? What part of the cow is used? Why add the gas - why not just heat it or irradiate it? Even though the latter kills any beneficial nutrients in the beef...
DeleteI'm just curious and want to know from someone on the inside why so many thousands of people consider the product to be inferior?
Another thing to consider is that you don't raise the cattle, so you don't know how they lived or what they ate. I would assume the beef comes from cattle on CAFO's - concentrated animal feeding operations - where they are fed copious amounts of grain (which is tough on a cow's digestive tract).
I'm just trying to learn here and find out the truth. So, please help!