No Pink Slime

In March 2012, widespread attention was directed the revelation that most ground beef contains a processed meat byproduct called “pink slime” by a series of reports at ABC news. More delicately known as “lean finely textured beef trimmings,” this product is made from connective tissue (versus meat muscle) and fat, and is treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill salmonella and E. coli.

Currently the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) considers this process safe enough to allow the resulting product to be added to ground beef. However, current regulations don’t require that companies disclose use of this ingredient on meat labels.¹

These slimiest, nastiest slaughterhouse leftovers are put together by a company called Beef Products. Inc., (BPI) who then takes the dirty, feces-stained scraps and turns them into dirty, contaminated burger filler.

How is that allowed?

The government lets them use this filler because it’s treated with ammonia.

Ammonia — the harsh chemical with the horrible smell that’s used for fertilizers and oven cleaners kills the harmful bacteria swimming around in the slimy meat soup. (It doesn’t get rid of it, of course. You’re still eating it, it’s just dead).

What they do is pass the pink slime through a pipe where it is doused in ammonia gas. You would never know because they don’t have to mention this on the label. And you probably never think about it… until you buy some meat that stinks so bad you have to return it.

Beef Products invented the process so they could find a way to use and make money from the absolute last and cheapest scraps of the animals. This meat is so cheap and popular that the National School Lunch Program forces schools to use it so they can shave a whole three cents off the cost of each burger fed to your kids.²

And it’s in up to 80% of the ground beef you can buy at restaurants or stores.³