There really is a food product nicknamed “Pink Slime” that is only now being discontinued by some major food chains and fast food restaurants because Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver exposed the fact that 70% of the supermarkets in America were putting the stuff in their hamburger meat. The processed material is gelatinous, ammonia-treated, pieces of connective tissue and beef scraps. Translation, this is what food processing plants are left with after the carcass has been picked clean of desirable cuts. Scraps are the animals “unmentionables”. Restaurants and supermarkets love the stuff because it “stretches” the meat product generating additional profits.
The Daily broke the story that the US Department ofAgriculture was about to purchase 7 million pounds of the stuff for school lunch programs. That got just a few mothers upset. But most Americans are unaware of this problem because the government does not require that processed materials of this type be listed on the package. After all, it might not encourage sales to have packaging reading “ground beef laced with connective tissues, fatty trimmings, and ammonia.
Some food chains like Safeway have eliminated pink slime from the meat case. But other stores, like Walmart and Sam’s Club, have only pledged to offer ground beef without the filler.
But here is the part the consumer rarely hears. The real danger of processing scraps off the carcass of a cow is that spinal fluid from the animal, seeping into the product, could cause what is commonly known as M ad Cow Disease. That is why the high-speed machines that tear the last vestigas of whatever off a carcass and then separate it, can no longer be used on cattle.
But here’s the rub.The machinery is used on the carcasses of animals to create chicken, turkey or pork. Now chicken nuggets or processed turkey don’t appear to have spinal leakage issues. But what is allowed to go into hot dogs and processed chicken pieces actually
