Jamie did a truly disgusting demo of how Meat product is created using meat trimmings in a centrifuge and ammonia. He calls it Pink Slime. yummy Its approved by the FDA as a filler for hamburger meat. These same meat trimmings are often used for dog food,
After a lot of bad press McDonald’s announces they won’t use Pink Slime in their burgers anymore. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing if other burger places are using it.
We all owe Jamie Oliver a big thank you for exposing this disgusting practice.
Chemical treatment of various unappetizing and/or toxic substances to make them edible is nothing at all new. Every culture has them.
Further, aren’t the crunchy granola assholes always holding Indians and such up to us as a paradigm of naturalness because they ate the whole buffalo? Why aren’t they happy we are eating these bits and pieces of a cow?
I realize the Ammonia is an anti-microbial agent that makes the meat trimmings safe to eat. Its considered safe by the FDA.
But, when we pay over $5 for a hamburger shouldn’t it be all ground beef? Why add that 15% of meat filler? I’d pay 50 cents more for a burger that didn’t have meat filler in it.
They should require something on the label that tells us meat filler has been added. Heck, from what Jaime said, the ground beef we buy at the grocery store often has fillers in it.
Getting upset over the way the stuff looks, or the name that it’s called, is totally stupid. The only criteria should be whether it is good for you or not. If it is healthy for you (in moderation) and safe to eat, I don’t care what it looks like in its uncooked form.
If the stuff is indeed bad for you, then I’m all in favor of getting rid of it.
In Jamie’s video he explains that meat trimmings made with Ammonia is called Meat Product, extenders, or filler. That’s what the FDA calls it. They allow up to 15% in hamburger. So a hundred pounds of burger yields 115 pounds with the filler in it.
Its nothing new. They’ve done it for a long time with canned meats. I was surprised to hear fast food burgers were doing it to.
Called that by who? What point in the video did he say that?
Cite? If that were true, I think they would have got on McDonald’s case years ago for claiming on its menus that their patties are made of 100% USDA-inspected beef and spices.
You said "he explains that meat trimmings made with Ammonia is called Meat Product, extenders, or filler. He didn’t say that.
He said *“you’re allowed 15% of this product” in any patty, in any mince meat, so basically what I’m telling you is it’s a thinner." * Remember, that “product” is 100% beef.
He never used any of the words you used (“Meat Product, extenders, or filler”) and you didn’t cite that that’s what the FDA calls it.
Not relevant here; again, McDonald’s patties are made from 100% USDA-inspected beef and doesn’t use any extenders or fillers mentioned in that link or anywhere else.
You got to love these guys at Wikipedia.
Wikipedia already has an article on Pink Slime. A term just coined by Jamie Oliver a few months ago. It looks well written with sources.
The Washington Post Article they source is very complimentary of the process. Maybe Jamie Oliver was making a big noise about nothing? I just don’t know.
I wonder how many people who have a problem with stuff like this also have no problem eating blue cheeses, natto, or other spoiled-foods-turned-delicacy.
I don’t have a big problem with efficiently using food scraps (as long as it’s safe, of course). The more useful meat per cow we can get, the fewer cows we need for the same amount of food, and therefore the better off we are environmentally.
As far as being worried about what I put in my body, it’s the over-anti-biotic-ed and over-hormoned meat to begin with; I’m less concerned about the ammonia-treated bits.
I agree.
My father-in-law saw some documentary (maybe it was the Jamie Oliver one in the OP) and is now convinced that every menu item sold at every chain restaurant – sit-down and fast food alike – is nothing but a mysterious paste that is flavored and shaped to resemble the food it purports to be. His new buzz-phrase is “processed food”, and “processed food” is evil, evil, evil. I tried to explain the meaninglessness of this term by pointing out that cutting is a process – if you cut a chicken breast in half it is now literally “processed food” – and that it’s all just a matter of degree, but he chose not to get it. He’s generally a smart man but he can be willfully ignorant about things like this sometimes. sigh
Its approved by the FDA as a filler for hamburger meat. These same meat trimmings are often used for dog food,