What’s inside a school lunch burger? 26 ingredients, and only one is meat

[marmar]

http://grist.org/list/whats-inside-a-school-lunch-burger-26-ingredients-and-only-one-is-meat/


(Grist) What will you see when NPR’s Tiny Desk Kitchen takes you inside a school lunch burger patty? Some pretty startling colors — blue copper gluconate, red cyanocobalamin — and some 10-dollar names like thiamine mononitrate and pyridoxine hydrochloride.

And then there’s the stuff that tries to cover up the burger’s artificiality. Caramel color, for instance, makes the burger look like it’s been grilled when it really hasn’t. Yeast makes the meat taste more meaty, and the spices, flavorings, and sweeteners (!?) aren’t just there to enhance the flavor of the meat. They’re there to mask the bitterness of the added “enrichment” chemicals.

In the video, NPR host Allison Aubrey talks to a food scientist, who tries to justify this hideous progeny of a real hamburger and a Flintstones vitamin. For kids who don’t get enough nutritious food at home, the scientist points out, sneaking extra nutrients and protein into their school lunch might be the way to keep them healthy. But that doesn’t explain the disodium inosinate, an MSG-like “flavor enhancer.”

[CottonBear]

1. Gross.

Why not use real 100% USDA grade A beef and serve the burger on a whole wheat bun with cheese, lettuce and tomato. Give them fortified milk to drink and a side of freash fruit salad. Why not give them a chewable vitamin too! I'd throw in some tater tots on their plate too, "cause kids love them!

[AverageJoe90]

2. I feel the same way. nt

[greiner3]

3. "Why not use real 100% USDA grade A beef and serve the burger on a whole wheat bun with cheese..."

Every school district has $X to spend on a school lunch. While some districts may be able to afford this, I can think of a few in Central Columbus, I doubt the 99% of the rest would not be able to come close to your Utopian ideal.

Great thought and sentiment though. I do agree with your post, just am thinking of the dollars and cents/sense of reality.

[obxhead]

7. We need a top down readjustment of where our tax dollars go.

I would be happy to take all the money we give to oil companies, one of the most profitable businesses on the planet, and shift it to a wholesome nationwide school lunch program.

The money is there, we just have to stop giving it to the people who don't need it.

[cali]

8. In the meantime:

http://www.farmtoschool.org/

[sybylla]

5. Lots of schools do.

I'm sure the company that is the source of this burger sells to schools. And other institutions besides schools. But to imply that all schools serve this same crap hamburger is the kind of journalism Jon Stossel and Geraldo Rivera are known for.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. What's inside a JustABozoOnThisBus burger? Only one ingredient is meat

Ground round
Mustard powder
Curry powder
Chopped onion
Chopped green pepper
Salt
Pepper

Heck, two of the ingredients count as vegetables!

Is it lunchtime yet?

[jberryhill]

13. No, you need to use the chemical names

...the curry powder alone has some scary sounding compounds in it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. And I thought curry powder was ground-up curries

Curry powder:

Coriander
Turmeric
Cumin
Cinnamon
Fenugreek
Black Pepper
Ginger
Allspice
Red Pepper
Nutmeg
Cloves
Cardamom

Nothing that seems scary, but now my burgers are up to 17 ingredients. I'm catching up with the school cafeteria. I wonder where I can buy some pink slime.

[jberryhill]

18. 8-Methyl-N-vanillyl-trans-6-nonenamide

You are deliberately putting that chemical in your burgers. It is what makes your red pepper spicy.

And you are feeding it to people.

How dare you.

Look at the ginger alone:

� �� The essential oil of ginger (ardraka) was found to contain, heptane, octane, isovaleraldehyde, nonanol, ethyl pinene, camphene, b-pinene, sabinene, myrcene, limonene, b-phellandrene and 1,8-cineole by GLC analysis. ( Phytochemistry 1972, 11, 3377); presence of gingediol, methylgingediol and their diacetates by GC-MS (Masada Yoshiro et.al., Yakzigakit Zossizi 1974,94(6),735(Japan); Chem. Abstr.1974,81,166345 p) was also detected; new sesquiterpenes sequithujene, cis-sesquisabinene hydrate and zingiberenol (2-methyl-6(trans-4'- methyl-4'-hydroxycyclohex-2'-enyl)-hept-2-ene) were isolated and structures determined (Can. J. Chem. 1975, 53, 3285); D3-carene, a-terpinene, a-terpineol, nerol, 1,8-cineole, zingiberene, neral, geranial, geraniol and geranyl acetate were identified in essential oil from rhizomes of ginger (Sakamura, Fukiko and Hayashi, Shuichi,� Nippopy Nogei Kagakit Kaishi 1978, 52, 207(Japanese); Chem. Abstr. 1978, 89, 152563 m).

[Odin2005]

25. Damn, now I'm hungry! WANT!!!

[SDjack]

6. What? No old fashion sawdust? Guess it can be sold to China for more dough. n/t

[Capt. Obvious]

9. EWWW

*puke*

That's it, I'm taking my kid to McDonald's for her burgers from now on.

[enki23]

10. I know those "ten dollar names" can be hard, so here's som oh-so-difficult translation

"thiamine mononitrate" = vitamin B1
"pyridoxine hydrochloride" = vitamin B6

But they sure look scary when you call them by their chemical names, don't they?

[jberryhill]

12. Yep

Some of this stuff is just sheer stupidity.

[Cirque du So-What]

14. Cyanocobalamin is vitamin B12 - and it's red in all its forms

The added B-vitamins are no big deal IMO. They're water-soluble, so there's no possibility of overdose. I question the wisdom of adding B-vitamins to meat, however, as most bread products are already enriched anyway. If they'd just leave the meat alone, there wouldn't be the need for sweeteners and flavor enhancers. The food industry must be making incredible profits by making meat a 'value-added product,' else they wouldn't be doing it. School systems need to organize and tell the big food processors that they're not buying this crap anymore. I'd like to see a push toward 'buying locally' anyway. I haven't run the numbers, but it stands to reason that ground beef could be obtained locally for a cheaper price than buying it from a big food company that obtains the 'plain' meat, processes the meat to hell-and-back, freezes it, and then ships it all around the country.

[jberryhill]

19. Economies of scale

I don't know where the nearest slaughterhouse is to me, but I bet there are ones hundreds of miles away that can process more cattle and transport the meat at a substantially lower unit cost.

It's good that people are learning more about what it really takes to feed more than 300 million people in a technologically advanced society a diet that is based on a basic plan established when most people were living on farms. Because the basic problem is that what and how we eat is totally out of whack with how we live in the first place.

First of all, we eat too much dang meat. Period. There is no way to produce that much meat and get it to that many people on this scale without having to engage in practices that people are shocked, shocked, to learn about.

Again, most people don't know where their own shit goes after they flush the toilet. Not a damned clue.

[CBGLuthier]

11. At Least Soylent Green was Made out of Meat

[Whiskeytide]

15. Nice

[orwell]

16. Do not eat factory meat...

...I worked in a meat plant.

If you knew what went into your "federally inspected" hot dogs you would never eat one again.

[FirstLight]

20. dammitt

I know that school lunches are bad... but some of us need that food program...

[jberryhill]

21. Which may be why they are putting B vitamins in it

blue copper gluconate - metabolizable copper supplement
red cyanocobalamin - Vitamin B12
thiamine mononitrate - Vitamin B1
pyridoxine hydrochloride - Vitamin B6

Of those kids for whom school lunch may be the only meal they get, can you explain which of those things you don't want them to have?

[Chan790]

26. that's exactly it.

School districts are now obligated to serve enriched food products at every opportunity in order to insure that students who may be coming from households in food-deserts or where proper nutrition may not be achieved due to cost, negligence or lack of home-tech skills are getting the most-complete diet possible.

I'm reminded of a classmate at prep school who, left to feed his sister on a regular basis and eating nothing but processed foods himself, was cause to her getting scurvy as a 7yo. as a bowl of oranges rotted on the counter over the span of several weeks. Let's just say the absentee parents, both doctors, were a bit annoyed with themselves as they realized they were negligent in not making sure that he was feeding her a proper diet. They bought the food but neither of them noticed that the only things moving were microwave pizza rolls, hotdogs, chicken nuggets and Coca-cola.

While the chemical names sound daunting and artificial, I wish they'd add vegetable-paste with soluble fiber into the mix.

[CottonBear]

23. Free and reduced costs breakfasts and lunches are so important.

A hungry child can't learn.

If the 1% and corporation paid their fair share of taxes and the USA didn't spend trillions on war, then we could feed our children good, healthy food. Heck, everyone could eat good food.

[Johnny Rico]

22. And what percentage of the burger is meat by weight?

[Odin2005]

24. We called the stuff in out school lunches "mystery meat".

Based on the texture it was probably that Pink Slime.