What If It Wasn’t Called Pink Slime?
Lean Fine Textured Beef (LFTB); or its more common name in recent years, Pink Slime is becoming quite the hot topic. Questions are raised on whether the pink slime is safe for human consumption. The name alone has given it a pretty negative reputation. On top of whether or not pink slime is safe or not, another concern is what benefits, if any does it offer as opposed to other meat alternatives. Not different than any other story this one has two sides; although there are a lot of allegations that pink slime is not safe for human consumption and it does not offer any benefits, there are many responses putting the allegations to rest. What if it wasn’t called pink slime?
What is pink slime? In a nutshell, pink slime is the meat left over after all the parts of the animal has been used. The low grade meat mixed with cartilage, connective tissue, and anything else that is left then gets heated up to a point where the lean beef is separated from the fat. After separation, the meat is then treated with ammonia to get rid of bacteria like salmonella and E. coli. After contact of the ammonia with the water within the beef it creates ammonium hydroxide, the meat then is finely ground, cut into pellets or block, then flash frozen and shipped out to be used as an additive in the pure beef and now is “pink slime”.
How common is pink slime, and where is it? There are many fast food restaurants that have pink slime in their products and also school districts. “The USDA estimates that lean finely textured beef accounted for about 6.5 percent of ground beef orders.” Not only, just in fast food restaurants and schools but in grocery stores and anywhere that sells beef as well. “There are no precise numb...
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...een around for a very long time, it seems as if there would be cold hard facts about it. The fact of the matter is that there is no definitive proof showing that pink slime or lean fine textured beef is either safe or unsafe for human consumption. This is because though they are the same thing, the people that are for it call it lean fine textured beef, the ones against it call it pink slime. However, this is not just a name change but gives a totally different definition to what is actually the same exact thing. Which brings back up the initial question of, what if it wasn’t called pink slime? Would people be more apt to look more into it and do research to find out that in fact, pink slime and lean fine textured beef and are the same thing. If the answer is yes, there would not be two different versions of the definition of this meat that no one can agree on.
—- . ”Tyson Foods: Living Food Safety." Tyson. Tyson, 28 Feb 2014. Web. 7 Apr 2014.
In today's society, organic food is a giant new thing in which food is produced without any chemicals. In other words, the product must be 100 percent natural. A major food source of the American people is meat, and the way that it is produced today is a major issue. In feedlots, where cattle are fed grain to grow before being slaughtered, the conditions are terrible and horrifying. Cattle are confined to a limited amount of space and not allowed to roam freely. Also in these cattle growing yards, the risk of disease is much higher in these animals than out on the open range grazing on the grass. Beef critics say that there are no cattle breeds that posses the amounts of marbling present to make a good steak. It is a true statement to say that these critics are very indeed wrong. Also, Many people also do not know that that the meat from cattle that are fed grain, is high in fat content and has too much marbling. Grass-fed beef is much leaner than grain-fed beef, has less fats, and is produced all naturally. Therefore, grass-fed beef is much healthier and safer to eat than grain-fed beef.
leadership, is partially pink as well. It has a deep, fading pink color running through it and pink
... flesh are then ground into a paste-like matter, which is cleansed with the previously mentioned ammonia to rid it of E. coli. The meat filler product is purchased by many fast food restaurants, such as McDonald’s. The Beef Products executive predicts that his product will be in 100% of hamburgers within the next five years.
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was an attempt to regulate the meatpacking industry and to assure consumers that the meat they were eating was safe. In brief, this act made compulsory the careful inspection of meat before its consummation, established sanitary standards for slaughterhouses and processing plants, and required continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of meat processing and packaging. Yet, the most important objectives set by the law are the prevention of adulterated or misbranded livestock and products from being commercialized and sold as food, and the making sure that meat and all its products are processed and prepared in the adequate sanitary and hygienic conditions (Reeves 35). Imported meat and its various products are no exception to these conditions; they must be inspected under equivalent foreign standards.
Did you know that a cow harvested specifically for beef only lives up to 18 months? The average cow usually lives up to 18-25 years! Today I will talk to you about the cruelty and chemicals that goes into the beef you are buying from your local grocery store. Not that I am in any way a vegetarian or against eating meat, but it is important for you to be informed about what goes into the food that you are putting into your body. You only have one, after all.
...eats contact. Finally, families who eat spinal or nervous tissue of cows can greatly reduce their risks of developing mad cow disease by not purchasing such items. The beef industry is willingly under surveillance, making all attempts to produce safe and healthy products. American residents should be assured that all necessary precautions have been taken to keep Mad Cow Disease out of the United States and consumer-friendly beef on market shelves. An excerpt from the FDA Consumer Magazine leaves the nation with this very “important message from both the Harvard and GAO studies. . . We must continue to work hard to make a good system even better. The FDA and the states will continue their aggressive inspection program and will continue to work closely with all components of the cattle and feed communities to help make a, thankfully, low public risk even lower.”
Some packaged meat products may contain casein as a binder so make it a habit to read the label
Meatpacking has become the most dangerous job in America. Unlike poultry plants, in which almost all tasks are performed by machines, most of the work in a slaughterhouse is done by hand. Hazards of the job include injuries from the various machines and knives, strain to the body from poor working conditions, and even methamphetamine use in order to keep up with the production line. Women face the added threat of sexual harassment. This chapter opens with an anecdote about the largest recall of food in the nation’s history. In 1997 approximately 35 million pounds of ground beef was recalled by Hudson Foods because a strain of E Coli was found in the food. However, by the time the beef was recalled, 25 million pounds had already been eaten. Schlosser notes that the nature of food poisoning is changing. Prior to the rise of large meatpacking plants, people would become ill from bad food in small, localized arenas. Now, because meat is distributed all over the nation, an outbreak of food poisoning in one town may indicate nation-wide epidemic. Every day in the United States, 200, 000 people are sickened by a food borne
According to a recent study, the meat being supplied by our nation’s schools might not meet the standards by the fast-food industry. Everyday students are sitting down to a processed, unhealthy, fat filled lunch. While many students are educated in the topic, some may be oblivious to the damage the food is doing to their body. Students all around the world are eating processed, genetically modified food, but with a new school program, they will be getting balanced, all natural meals.
Wein, Harrison, Ph.D. "Risk in Red Meat? - National Institutes of Health" U.S National Library
In today’s times, kids all over the world are making different types of slimes to keep themselves entertained. Slime has been around for many years, but recently there has been new ways to make slime at home. Slime can be made using many different ingredients. Some common ingredients used to make slime include; Borax, baking soda, contact lens solution, water, and liquid starch. All of these slime recipes have one ingredient in common, glue. Kids have an array of substances they can add to their slime mixture to create more fun. Additional substances can include food coloring, glitter, Orbeez, small toys, beads, or even confetti. Does decorating slime mixtures increase the consistency of a standard slime mixture? Orbeez can make the slime feel
Bhat, Z.f., and Hina Bhat. "Animal-free Meat Biofabrication." American Journal of Food Technology 6.6 (2011): 441-59. Print.
An abundance of Americans have no idea that most of the food that they consume are either processed or altered in one way or another. “Almost all beef cattle entering feedlots in the United States are given hormone implants to promote faster growth. The first product used for this purpose is DES (diethylstilbestrol) it was approved for use in beef cattle in 1954. An estimated two-thirds of the nation's beef cattle were treated with DES in 1956. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, Brazil, and Skakkebaek)” Many people enjoy the various meats that comes from a cow, but that would probably change if the consumers knew that cattle is one of the most processed meat source in the market today because of the synthetic hormones that the cows are given. “ The three synthetic hormones are the estrogen compound zeranol, the androgen trenbolone acetate, and progestin melengestrol acetate. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, B...
The saddest part of this trend is that fast food is not safe to consume daily. The first negative side that should be considered about the healthiness of fast food is that it involves too much oil, salt and calories that are not beneficial to our health. Moreover, the chemicals that are being added to increase shelf life of the foods are dangerous to the health. According to a New York Times article “window cleaning chemical injected into fast food, hamburger meat” by Mike Adams, the health ranger, he mentioned that the beef is being injected with ammonia, which is a chemical commonly used in glass cleaning and window cleaning products. The USDA doesn 't seem to be paying attention to the fact that people are eating ammonia in their hamburgers because for them Ammonia kills the e.coli