White House's Dept. of Agriculture says pink slime ok for your schoolchildren to eat

[brentspeak]

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/05/030512-news-pink-slime-1-3/

Partners in ‘slime’
Feds keep buying ammonia-treated ground beef for school lunches

By David Knowles Monday, March 5, 2012

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s continued purchase of so-called pink slime for school lunches makes no sense, according to two former microbiologists at the Food Safety Inspection Service.

“I have a 2-year-old son,” microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein told The Daily. “And you better believe I don’t want him eating pink slime when he starts going to school.”

snip

The USDA, which plans to buy 7 million pounds of Lean Beef Trimmings from BPI in the coming months for the national school lunch program, said in a statement that all of its ground beef purchases “meet the highest standard for food safety.” USDA officials also noted that the sole role of the food inspection service is to determine the overall safety of the nation’s food supply, not to make judgments on a product’s relative merits.

But Zirnstein and Custer say that the USDA now finds itself in the odd position of purchasing a product that has recently been dropped by fast-food giants McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/03/05/pink-slime-still-menu

Microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein and retired microbiologist Carl Custer say the goop is "a high risk product." The two conducted a study on pink slime in the late '90s, when JoAnn Smith—known for being buddy-buddy with the beef industry—was serving as undersecretary for the George H.W. Bush administration. (Smith was president of both the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the National Cattlemen’s Association). At the time, Custer sounded the alarms for food-safety concerns, but the USDA ignored his warnings, Custer says, soliciting a second assessment of the slime's safety.

Because the meat scraps are particularly vulnerable to contamination, South Dakota company Beef Products, Inc. came up with the idea to soak the stuff in ammonia to kill E. coli and salmonella in 2001. The USDA stamped it with approval and shortly thereafter, the slime was available for public consumption.

Current head of US Department of Agriculture: noted Big Agri-business buddy Tom Vilsack.

[Justice wanted]

1. I'm sorry BUT NO GROUND BEEF IN THE U.S. SHOULD CONTAIN THAT STUFF!

[bhikkhu]

4. Ground beef can't, but "beef patties" have always allowed it

http://www.beeffoodservice.com/CMDocs/BFS/BeefU/BeefUFactSheets/09_PI-GroundBeef.pdf

go down to page 6 of the PDF.

This is a good reason to avoid beef patties, and maybe a good reason to change the law, but not a good reason to "go after" the administration. I'd assume that if its been standard law and practice for ages now, the risks vs. benefits are well known, and I doubt that there are any instances of harm to use as examples.

It comes down to being able to call it "slime", and whether its right to eat something you can call slime, and whether its right to feed it to kids - more of a "go with your gut feeling" issue than anything else (so to speak ).

[Justice wanted]

6. Well if Beef paties are suppose to contain ground beef than IT shouldn't contain that as well.

[brentspeak]

8. Spoken like a glib lobbyist n/t

[bhikkhu]

11. How can you change a law if you don't know the law?

The first step to establishing your position on anything shouldn't be thinking with your gut, but educating yourself on the topic. I think any conversation should at least include a link to the public regulations and the definitions of the terms.

[brentspeak]

13. Is there a law that requires the USDA to purchase pink slime for school lunches?

Can you please link us to this alleged law?

Thanks in advance.

[bhikkhu]

15. The regulations say what kind of animal parts can go into beef patties

...whether you buy them from a butcher, from a grocery store or from a corporate processed-meat supplier, whether you eat them at home, or whether you serve them in a school lunch.

Here's the link to the regulations again, and the most relevant part is on page 6: http://www.beeffoodservice.com/CMDocs/BFS/BeefU/BeefUFactSheets/09_PI-GroundBeef.pdf

I don't actually have much of an opinion on the issue myself, as my kids are lactose intolerant and couldn't eat most school lunches anyway. I pack them lunches every morning. At home we have had processed meat products (beef patties, hot dogs, bologna, etc) on occasion, but we generally avoid them.

And "kind of gross" is a good description of the entire animal slaughter/processing industry if you look at it closely - including the links along the chain that arrives at high-end steaks and so forth.

[brentspeak]

16. Ok, thank you for passively acknowledging that there is no such law at all

mandating that the USDA purchase of 7 million pounds of pink slime meat for the federal school lunch programs.

Very sporting of you.

[dems_rightnow]

17. That is so cool.

Love how you made up a statement that the other poster never made, challenged him to defend it, and declared yourself the victor. Well done.

[Robb]

19. It's a mad sort of genius, isn't it?

It reminds me a bit of talking about cookies with my 2 year-old.

"I'm having cookies!"

"No cookies until after nap."

"Yes cookies!"

"No cookies."

"I'm going to have just one cookie, then a nap, OK!"

"No cookies."

"You said one cookie! Yay cookie!"

etc.

[brentspeak]

21. I asked the previous poster to cite a law requiring the purchase of pink slime for federal lunches

He "answered" my direct question by responding to a question I never asked, and presented his bogus answer as though he really was answering my question, thus giving the false impression that USDA requirements really do mandate the purchase of pink slime products (which they don't). And since I asked him a question, rather than attributed to him a statement, there is no "statement" which was "made up" in the first place, is there?

If you have a problem understanding the meanings of words -- like the difference between the words "question" and "statement" -- try using this. Otherwise, take Mark Twain's advice:

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

[bhikkhu]

22. Having kids, I'm familiar with how discussions devolve to pointlessness

but to answer the point more directly than I did at first - of course there is no law requiring the government to buy "pink slime" for school lunches. However, as "pink slime" is a regular ingredient in beef patties, you would have to remove beef patties from the school lunch menu if you wanted to remove "pink slime" from school lunches.

By reading the regulations, you learn what products contain the ingredients you want to avoid, and you go from there.

[brentspeak]

23. Nope. Only an estimated 25% of hamburger patties have pink slime components

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/is-pink-slime-in-the-beef-at-your-grocery-store/

[bhikkhu]

26. Its a permitted ingredient, not a required ingredient

...and as there is no labeling requirement, if you are buying "beef patties", especially at a good price, you can assume you're getting some connective tissue, organ meats, and so forth. The regulations allow it, so if you want to avoid it buying something else is probably safer.

[saras]

2. All I can think of when I see this stuff is Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Synthetic Men of Mars"

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100231.txt

Bon appetit.

[Kalidurga]

7. Soylent Pink...

I don't think it is food anyway. It looks like something you could play with. Or get sick eating. They also say it is safe, but they don't say if it has any nutritional value.

[DLevine]

3. Disgusting. n/t

[Brickbat]

5. Wait, I thought that photo was what was in McNuggets.

Sure looks familiar.

[Ikonoklast]

24. You are correct. That is a pic of mechanically separated chicken, processed further.

A quick search will find that pic.

[bhikkhu]

9. I think its better for meat-eaters to not think too much about what they eat...

There's not much about killing, processing and eating any part of an animal that is very appealing, if you really think about it.

[yellowcanine]

10. Nit pick. No such thing as "White House Dept of Agriculture" There is a U.S. Dept of Agriculture.

It is not part of the White House.

[brentspeak]

14. Obama administration's US Dept of Agriculture, then

Head of USDA appointed by the President (as always), run as per the White House's wishes.

[woo me with science]

18. And the silence from Michelle Obama on this is deafening,

given her self-chosen and highly publicized decision to be a spokesperson for healthy school lunches.

[HopeHoops]

12. School cafeterias have had McFood for decades. That's not an excuse, but it's true.

Reagan decided ketchup was a vegetable. The current GOP took it a step further and added Pizza. Hamburgers (with shriveled up buns) and greasy fries are a "healthy option" if you put a ketchup packet on the tray. That's what kids want. That's what some eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - every fucking day. My wife gave up asking her kindergarten kids what they had for dinner because the answers were "Wendy's", "McDonalds", and "Burger King" - every damn day. They eat in the back of the SUVs while watching something on the DVD in the headrest.



Oh, and that pink slime is bleached to make it look like cooked chicken.

[Robb]

20. Funny. HuffPo says that picture is chicken.

From an article two years ago:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/04/mechanically-separated-meat-chicken-mcnugget-photo_n_749893.html

[drokhole]

25. This shouldn't even be legal...

Proper nutrition - as the raw material fueling developing brains and bodies, thereby establishing mental and physical well being - is just as, if not more, important to a child's education than any book they'll read.

[backscatter712]

27. They'd better cook that stuff well!

Aside from the appearance (which is disgusting), IIRC, the problem is with the ammonia treatment process, which, when working correctly, does kill e-coli & other bacteria, but OTOH, is a very touchy process, and if the machines in the meat-packing plant aren't monitored & working correctly, can result in infected meat going out the door.

But yeah, the word is BLEEEEAH!!!