Pink Slime For School Lunch: Government Buying 7 Million Pounds Of Ammonia-Treated Meat For Meals

[woo me with science]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/pink-slime-for-school-lun_n_1322325.html?ref=mostpopular

Pink Slime For School Lunch: Government Buying 7 Million Pounds Of Ammonia-Treated Meat For Meals

First Posted: 03/ 5/2012 5:19 pm Updated: 03/ 6/2012 9:03 am

Pink slime -- that ammonia-treated meat in a bright Pepto-bismol shade -- may have been rejected by fast food joints like McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King, but is being brought in by the tons for the nation's school lunch program.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is purchasing 7 million pounds of the "slime" for school lunches, The Daily reports. Officially termed "Lean Beef Trimmings," the product is a ground-up combination of beef scraps, cow connective tissues and other beef trimmings that are treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. It's then blended into traditional meat products like ground beef and hamburger patties.

"We originally called it soylent pink," microbiologist Carl Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection Service for 35 years, told The Daily. "We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat."
....
News of the USDA's plan to bring 7 million pounds of "pink slime" to school cafeterias nationwide comes just weeks after the government announced new guidelines to ensure students are given healthier options for school meals. The new standards call for more whole grains and produce as well as less sodium and fat in school meals. While the measures mark a step forward from previous years, they still compromise amid push-back from Congress to keep pizza and french fries on the menu -- counting both the tomato paste on pizza and the potatoes that make fries as vegetables....

[joeybee12]

1. Looks like someone is running a pink flamingo through a meat grinder

KNR

[woo me with science]

4. This is a must see video:

Jamie Oliver blasts pink slime:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pink+slime+video+chef&mid=F6A9AB6E23DC4F658CA7F6A9AB6E23DC4F658CA7&view=detail&FORM=VIRE1

[joeybee12]

6. I don't know....I might not have the stomach for it...

I assume Paula Deen's next gig will be as spokesperson for "Pink Slime."

[woo me with science]

7. Heh heh. nt

[Trillo]

2. The factories making this could instead

skip the sterilization process and supply the scraps to composters as a nitrogen source. Yeah, they wouldn't get money for it, but it would still be used and not wasted. Maybe they could deduct it as a charitable contribution, if a law allowing such deduction existed.

[woo me with science]

9. $$$$$$

If the kids'll eat ammonia....why not?

[denverbill]

3. I think they should just market it to freepers and teabaggers.

After all, Democrats, consumer advocates, and most other sane people oppose this, which means they automatically think it must be good. Plus they love corporations and know corporations would never do anything to hurt them, unlike the government.

[woo me with science]

10. Yet this happens under a Democratic administration...

[Initech]

5. "Thanks to your budget cuts we're down to using Grade F meat!"

[woo me with science]

8. Circus animals.

Hmm.

When I was about 15, my aunt came home with a box she'd gotten on sale from a local food distributor, labeled, "rejected school lunches."

I didn't even want to know.

[Initech]

11. Rejected school lunches? Could be this:

"There's very little meat in these gym mats!"

[woo me with science]

12. LOL.

I might rather eat that than pink slime...

[Initech]

13. Probably more nutritional value than Soylent Pink.