VICTORY against 'Pink slime' beef...for now

'Pink slime' beef company suspends operations at three of four plants

The three plants used to produce 900,000 lbs of pink slime per day

DAILY MAIL
March 26, 2012

The company that makes 'pink slime' suspended operations Monday at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made, saying officials would work to address recent public concern about the product.

Beef Products Inc. will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kansas; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company's director of food safety and quality assurance.

The company's plant at its Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, headquarters will continue operations.

Beef Products, Inc has decided to suspend operations at three of is four plants after an uproar over the use of 'pink slime', the nickname for boneless beef trimmings that are treated with ammonia and used as filler, Image Reuters.

'We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back,' Letch said.

'It's 100 percent beef.'

Federal regulators say the ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as 'lean, finely textured beef,' meets food safety standards.

But critics say the product could be unsafe and is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

The low-cost ingredient is made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat. The lean mix then is compressed into blocks for use in ground meat.

The product is exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.

Spot the difference? The three factories used to churn out 900,000 lbs of pink slime a day. The burger on the right uses the filler, the one on left does not, Image AP

The result is a product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.

The product has been used for years, but it wasn't until earlier this month that social media suddenly exploded with worry and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to allow school districts to stop using it and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from their shelves.

About 200 employees at each of the three plants will get full salary and benefits for 60 days during the suspension, Letch said.

The plant in Amarillo produced about 200,000 pounds a day, while the Kansas and Iowa plants each produced about 350,000 pounds a day.

Not only is the USDA using 'pink-slime' beef to feed your kids in school but is coming soon to a fast-food joint near you

USDA plans to keep feeding 'pink slime' to your kids

Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Natural News
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Image (left) credit: NaturalNews

(NaturalNews) After garnering nationwide attention for being secretly added to processed hamburgers and beef products, including those served in school lunchrooms, "lean finely textured beef," aka "pink slime," is reportedly on its way out from the menu offerings of McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King. 

But according to Mother Jones, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to keep ordering this imitation, ammonia-laced product for use in its National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a taxpayer-funded government food program that serves low-income students.

Pink slime gained much notoriety after being featured in the acclaimed 2008 documentary Food Inc.. Robert Kenner, the film's director, revealed an inside look into Beef Products International (BPI), a South Sioux City, Neb.-based processing plant that produces most of the nation's supply of pink slime. The product, which is composed of bovine connective tissue and random beef scraps doused in ammonia and formed into a paste, is commonly used as a beef filler because it is low-cost and supposedly less risky compared to conventional ground beef.

You can watch a disturbing clip from Food Inc. featuring footage from the BPI plant and commentary by BPI founder Eldon Roth at the following link:
http://youtu.be/RHQHPNoyO7c


FDA, USDA say ammonia-laced 'pink slime' is safe for children

Though BPI claims that pink slime is safer than conventional ground beef because of the ammonia treatment, tests conducted by NSLP between 2005 and 2009 have revealed that the meat-like matter routinely tests positive for salmonella at four times the rate of conventional beef. Ammonia is also a highly-corrosive poison that is known to cause respiratory illness and lung damage, liver problems, and cancer. The Chemical Encyclopedia says ammonia is "highly toxic" if swallowed (http://healthychild.org/issues/chemical-pop/ammonia/).

And yet both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the USDA insist that pink slime is safe, even though there is absolutely no evidence to prove this. And now the USDA's NSLP is reportedly ordering seven million pounds of pink slime to serve to students, a shocking move that even the nation's most notoriously unhealthy fast-food chains are unwilling to make.

Reports indicate that top USDA officials have routinely ignored all data showing that pink slime is a "high risk product," and have instead continued to endorse the product as safe for human consumption. And the worst part about the situation is that, just like with genetically-modified (GM) products, pink slime is secretly added into raw ground beef without being properly labeled.

"They've taken a processed product (ammonia), without labeling it, and added it to raw ground beef," said microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein recently to The Daily. "Science is the truth, and pink slime at this point in time is a fraudulent lie" (http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/03/05/pink-slime-still-menu).

Sources for this article include:

http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/03/pink-slime-school-lunch

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/035241_pink_slime_beef_ammonia.html

• Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035255_pink_slime_USDA_school_lunches.html#ixzz1pDYB2HKi

• 'Pink Slime' (beef parts paste with ammonia) good for kids, says Beef Products, Inc

Want some 'pink slime' beef? The government says its good for you

'Pink Slime' (beef parts paste with ammonia) good for kids, says Beef Products, Inc
Scott Morefield
Natural News
Wednesday, March 14, 2012

"PINK SLIME"?: A photo released by Beef Products Inc of boneless lean beef trimmings are shown before packaging. Image credit: stuff.co.nz

(NaturalNews) In perhaps the most amazing display of unmitigated gall since the Journal of Pediatrics declared mercury 'good for kids,' (1) Beef Products Inc. (BPI) told The Daily that its "lean finely textured beef (LFTB)," treated with ammonia, is good for America's schoolchildren. Last week The Daily broke the news that the federal government plans to buy beef containing over 7 million pounds of 'pink slime' over the next year.

"Including LFTB in the national school lunch program's beef products accomplishes three important goals on behalf of 32 million kids," BPI spokesman Rich Jochum told The Daily. "It 1) improves the nutritional profile, 2) increases the safety of the products and 3) meets the budget parameters that allow the school lunch program to feed kids nationwide every day." (2)

So what's the real reason?

With their first and second stated reasons being patently absurd, it really just comes down to the third, the almighty dollar. By adding the beef fat and trimmings, known to contain higher levels of E. Coli, salmonella, and other pathogens, then adding ammonia to kill said pathogens, they are able to save 3 cents off the cost of making a pound of beef. (2)

So by adding ammonia to a product that was previously only sold to dog food and cooking oil suppliers, (3) BPI is able to decrease their costs by mixing it with beef and feeding it to children.

Want to vote with your wallet and forgo the 'pink slime' infested meat? It might be difficult. Janet Riley, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Meat Institute recently made her case against labeling, telling ABC News, "What you are asking me to put on the label, its beef, it's on the label, it's a beef product, it's says beef so we are declaring ... it's beef," she said. (3)

By Ms. Riley's logic, dog food is 'beef' too. Perhaps she is using the same standards McDonalds uses when it calls its chicken nuggets 'chicken.' (4)

Consumers do have a choice!

ABC recently did a report on, "Where you can get 'pink-slime' free beef." In it, Costco, Publix, H-E-B, Kroger, Whole Foods, and Tops Markets all adamantly stated they do not use beef laced with 'pink slime,' while several major national chains just as adamantly defended it. (3) Former USDA scientist and current whistleblower Gerald Zirnstein, the man who coined the phrase 'pink slime,' recently told ABC News that 70% of ground beef sold at supermarkets contains the filler. (5)

What can we do? The best way to know for sure that your meat is 'slime-free' is to buy fresh, locally grown meat from someone you know or buy meat that is certified 'USDA Organic.' Consumers should absolutely vote with their feet and their wallets. A grocery store that wants to defend the practice of calling dog food laced with ammonia 'good for kids' is certainly not worthy of trust or patronage. Additionally, parents should contact the administrator of their child's school lunch program to make them aware, if they are not already, of this outrage. Meanwhile, a sack-lunch is always a good idea!

Sign the petition, "Tell USDA to STOP Using Pink Slime in School Food!"
http://www.change.org#

Sources for this article include:
1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSGT24sY2yM
2 http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/12/031212-news-pink-slime-1-2/
3 http://abcnews.go.com
4 http://www.dailymail.co.uk
5 http://supermarketnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035241_pink_slime_beef_ammonia.html#ixzz1p8RgZBz1