So I’m here at work eating, of all things, a ‘Slim Jim’ which is otherwise a tubular piece of greasy beef jerky. Or so I thought. In fact, though I thought it was ‘beef’ jerky, I notice that after ‘beef’ on the list of ingredients is something listed as ‘mechanically separated chicken’. So I guess my question is, exactly what the hell does this mean? And why is it so different that the USDA/ FDA required the people at Slim Jim, Inc. from just simply listing ‘chicken’ as their ingredient?
It’s a message that the company is using non-union chicken dismemberers rather than teamsters. Or chicksters. Hamsters? Whatever.
My guess is that mechanical separation is not as precise as manual separation. As a result some chinken parts that are still edible,but not generally consider food, make their way into your jerky.
It means that the chicken was stripped from bone by machine instead of cut by hand and therefore will have particles of bone, ligament, cartilige, skin, etc. Not enough for you to notice, but it’s in there.
Happy eating!
–Tim
From the USDA:
Sometimes it is better to just chow down without asking questions why it tastes yummy 
is there a puking smilie?