Even as the National School Lunch Program rifles through
students’ bagged lunches to make certain that what their parents packed for
lunch is “approved”….new information shows what is being quietly served on your
child’s school lunch tray
McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and many grocery stores
have vowed to stop using it (now that the cow is out of the bag). But….unbelievably, The USDA will continue
buying pink slime containing ground beef products to be served to our children
as part of the “National School Lunch Program.”
Let’s talk about pink slime, shall we?
Pink slime is listed on ground beef labels as “lean finely
textured beef.” (That actually sounds
healthy, doesn’t it?). What is it? An ammonia treated burger extender made from
fatty left over meat trimmings, beef scraps, cow connective tissues…the parts
of beef that were once used in dog food and cooking fat.
The process involves heating the scraps to about 100 degrees
F and spinning them to remove most of the fat.
What’s left is connective tissue and assorted as sundry none- fat
scraps. The slimy product is sprayed
with ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, formed into blocks or chips, and
frozen. See, it turns out that the waste
products are more highly apt to contain E.Coli and Salmonella so that handy
spray of ammonia helps kill the bacteria.
Does ammonia show up on the label for this meat product? No, the FDA allows the ammonia to be labeled
as an undisclosed “processing agent.”
What a tangled web we weave……
It is estimated that at least 50% of our ground beef supply
contains pink slime.
This year, the USDA has contracted to buy 111.5 MILLION
pounds of ground beef for the National School Lunch Program. About 7 MILLION pounds of “lean finely
textured beef” will be among those pounds.
And, even though fast food restaurants and grocery stores won’t be using
the product, the USDA will give the School Lunch Program the option to use the
pink slime burgers or purchase non-pink slime containing burgers.
Why would a school choose the pink slime burgers? They are less expensive and cost saving, of
course! The idea that school children
are being served this beef “product” without their parent’s knowledge but with
the full consent of the USDA and National School Lunch Program is beyond me.
Despite the ammonia spraying, E.Coli and Salmonella are
still found in the “lean finely textured beef.”
Hence, outbreaks of E.coli that have still caused recalls of tons of
beef in the past 10 years. And the
strains of E.coli are more deadly than ever:
Why is E.Coli such a
concern these days? I don’t remember
hearing about it years ago. Well, the
answer lies in the very large demand for beef.
E.Coli originates from the digestive tracts of cattle. Cattle are meant to be fed grass..but due to
demand, farms skip the grazing and feed the cattle a daily intake of antibiotic
treated grain. Grain is not the
appropriate food for cattle. The manure
produced by the cattle ends up seeping into the ground and water supply. (That’s how mass E.coli happens regarding
vegetables). Healthy animals are fed so
many antibiotics that E.Coli and salmonella are developing resistance to them.
The FDA must make a
ruling on a lawsuit brought last year by the Natural Resources Defense Council
to decide if routinely feeding healthy farm animals antibiotics constitutes a
threat to humans. It’s a bet that the
very strong meat and drug industries will put the pressure on the FDA to keep
antibiotic dosing in effect.
So…The
process of heating and spinning the left over trimming, connective tissue, etc
to form a low fat paste that could be sprayed with ammonia to kill its higher
than typical E.Coli content could “extend” burger making it cheaper for fast
food industries and groceries and the USDA to purchase for the National School
Lunch program. All this done without the
public’s knowledge. And now, when even
fast food and grocers are willing to say “no more”…the USDA continues to say
YES to pink slime for our kids.
