Once Only for Dogfood, Now for Ground Beef

Published:

But you're still gonna pay the ground beef price.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/70_Percent_of_Ground_Beef_at_Supermarkets_Contains_%E2%80%98Pink_Slime%E2%80%99/18351/0/38/38/Y/M.html

70 Percent of Ground Beef at Supermarkets Contains ‘Pink Slime’ (video at link)

Gerald Zirnstein grinds his own hamburger these days. Why? Because this former United States Department of Agriculture scientist and, now, whistleblower, knows that 70 percent of the ground beef we buy at the supermarket contains something he calls “pink slime.”

“Pink slime” is beef trimmings. Once only used in dog food and cooking oil, the trimmings are now sprayed with ammonia so they are safe to eat and added to most ground beef as a cheaper filler.

It was Zirnstein who, in an USDA memo, first coined the term “pink slime” and is now coming forward to say he won’t buy it.

“It’s economic fraud,” he told ABC News. “It’s not fresh ground beef. … It’s a cheap substitute being added in.”

Zirnstein and his fellow USDA scientist, Carl Custer, both warned against using what the industry calls “lean finely textured beef,” widely known now as “pink slime,” but their government bosses overruled them.

If you have questions about “pink slime,” email us at ABC.WorldNews@abc.com.

According to Custer, the product is not really beef, but “a salvage product … fat that had been heated at a low temperature and the excess fat spun out.”

The “pink slime” is made by gathering waste trimmings, simmering them at low heat so the fat separates easily from the muscle, and spinning the trimmings using a centrifuge to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes where it is sprayed with ammonia gas to kill bacteria. The process is completed by packaging the meat into bricks. Then, it is frozen and shipped to grocery stores and meat packers, where it is added to most ground beef.

The “pink slime” does not have to appear on the label because, over objections of its own scientists, USDA officials with links to the beef industry labeled it meat.

“The under secretary said, ‘it’s pink, therefore it’s meat,’” Custer told ABC News.

ABC News has learned the woman who made the decision to OK the mix is a former undersecretary of agriculture, Joann Smith. It was a call that led to hundred of millions of dollars for Beef Products Inc., the makers of pink slime.

When Smith stepped down from the USDA in 1993, BPI’s principal major supplier appointed her to its board of directors, where she made at least $1.2 million over 17 years.

Smith did not return ABC News’ calls for comment and BPI said it had nothing to do with her appointment. The USDA said while her appointment was legal at the time, under current ethics rules Smith could not have immediately joined the board.

Someone call the lumber mill, there's a new "higher" use for all that saw dust.  If it's brown, does that make it bread? Puke

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Entry #752

Comments

Avatar sully16 -
#1
We got a letter from the school the other day, pink slime is on the menu, Soy burgers must of got too expensive.
Remember that movie, Soylent green.
I send my kid to school with lunch.
Avatar JAP69 -
#2
"According to Custer, the product is not really beef"
_____________________________________________
What a scare article. If the product comes from a beef animal it's a beef product.
People have their opinion on what is for human consumption.
Pretty much the whole animal can be consumed.
Avatar time*treat -
#3
Careful, sully16, some schools have lunch inspectors now. If they don't like yours, they'll pressure your kid to eat one of theirs.
Avatar sully16 -
#4
oh yes the food police are in force, but I don't send him with junk food, I don't cram carrots and celery sticks down his throat either. He's a fresh fruit kind of kid, A sandwich and a ton of fruit = happy kid.
Avatar JADELottery -
#5
I heard this once, don't feed you dog people food, it's not good for them.

well, think about that, It's - Not - Good - For - Them... hmmm.

if it's not good for the dog, then why the heell are we eating it?

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