Pink Slime is back

luvs

'lil Chef
Gold Site Supporter
i tried to listen. i got
a 'lil ill. (not your post!) so help my guy, if he made me preggers. i cannot wait to make that shopping list--

-formula
-diapers
-blankie
-play-pen
-onsies & cute stuff
-socks
-tylenol
some other random, unknown stuff, as per request, & so, help you God, if you say you're tired. so help you.
 

Cooksie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
"Cargill uses a slightly different process than BPI, treating the meat with citric acid instead of ammonia, and currently sells FTB to nearly 400 retail, food-service, and food-processing customers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The USDA does not mandate labeling of products that include FTB and LFTB. Cargill began labeling its FTB meat in 2013. The USDA says the LFTB process is “generally recognized as safe” and therefore “it is not required to be included on the label of products.” The USDA also ruled that LFTB is “not filler; it is nutritionally equivalent to 95% lean beef and doesn’t contain connective tissue.”

The thought of treating it with ammonia is yucky, reminds me of old fish smell. Citric acid sounds a lot better.

I think they ought to be able to sell it if they want, but I do think it should be labeled as such. I don't think it's any worse than what's in a Vienna sausage :huh: or cheapo hot dog/weiner.

Referring to it as "pink slime" seems to have been a sensationalism move on the press's part. I see they sued the press for that little trick.
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
i tried to listen. i got
a 'lil ill. (not your post!) so help my guy, if he made me preggers. i cannot wait to make that shopping list--

-formula
-diapers
-blankie
-play-pen
-onsies & cute stuff
-socks
-tylenol
some other random, unknown stuff, as per request, & so, help you God, if you say you're tired. so help you.

You lost me on this post, luvs.

What do you mean?

Lee
 

waybomb

Well-known member
Pink Slime is protein. I'm not going to write a disertation here, but the only way you make enough lean hamburgers is to extract protein and add it back in. And this product has been completely thermoprocessed, thus, absolutely no pathogens, like regular burgers may have.

It is amazing how people who know nothing about a product can bash it.
 

chilefarmer

New member
Good, Bad or indifferent, I don't want to eat it. So guess I am just going to keep on raising and grinding my own meat. Good for me? I don't know, but I know whats in it. CF
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
I don't know for sure what line of work you are in Fred, I think it is meat processing.

Were you to be taking some meat home for your family to eat, would you ask your employees to be sure to add some of this to it, or would you opt for just meat?

It may be everything you say it is, I am not contesting that at all. It is an additive that I suspect most would not want, furthermore, if the product is not clearly labeled that it is included in the product, it is deceptive. If the consumer had a choice, albeit at a higher price, I don't believe that much of it would be sold.

Just my two cents.

Andy
 

waybomb

Well-known member
I know I have eaten it. And I have purposely eaten it. In fact, at one of the AMI shows, BPI made a 100% "pink slime" roast beef from it. Damnit if it wasn't the best tasting roast beef I ever had.

It is protein. Completely free of anything else and completely micro free. Sort of like a fully cooked sausage.

If you want to believe the likes of NBC, have at it. Your life is being led by headliners, not facts.

In the simplest possible way to explain it - they boil the fat/bones/protein to separate them. Collect the protein, cool it, box it. Ever cook soup? Same thing. BUT DON'T DARE EAT SOUP! Christ, you've separated the fat from the protein.

ps - sausage and ham business.
pps - do you eat snack sticks - it has lean fine textured beef in it.
ppps - here's a link = take the time to teach yourself http://www.beefproducts.com/
 

waybomb

Well-known member
Here - if you don;t want to learn - from the webpage listed above:
What is Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB)?

Lean Finely Textured Beef, or LFTB, is 100% beef.
It is simply the lean beef trimmed from sirloins, ribeyes and other whole muscle cuts of beef. No organs, tendons, bones or fillers are used.

It is very lean meat, typically 93-97% lean. Mixing with other whole muscle cuts of beef creates the wide variety of ground beef lean points you can find on grocery store shelves, from 73/27 to 93/7.
This makes ground beef more affordable and available. In numerous taste panels, consumers consistently choose hamburgers made with LFTB for their taste and tenderness.
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How is Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) Made?

Fresh trimmings from sirloins, ribeyes and other whole muscle cuts of beef are sent through a patented process that separates the lean beef from the fat to make leaner beef trimmings.

LFTB is 100% USDA inspected beef from only the best beef producers in the world. When a butcher divides the beef into cuts, 53% go to steaks and roasts and 47% are cuts for ground beef known as beef trimmings. These trimmings are just a knife cut away from being a steak.
To make leaner ground beef from these fresh trimmings, some trimmings go through a specially designed centrifuge; the same method used to separate milk from cream. It spins at high speeds to separate heavier materials, like lean beef (or milk) from lighter materials, like fat (or cream). Once the fat is removed, the beef from these trimmings is 95% lean.

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Is Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) Safe?

Yes! LFTB is a safe beef product that has an unsurpassed food safety record. It undergoes rigorous and comprehensive testing, is processed using validated food safety systems and meets the toughest quality control standards in the industry.

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Is Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) regulated and inspected?

Yes! LFTB is 100% beef and all beef is strictly regulated and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) carry out USDA’s responsibilities under the Federal Meat Inspection Act. These laws protect consumers by ensuring that meat is wholesome, unadulterated, and correctly labeled and packaged. Inspectors are present in plants where these products are made to ensure they are produced in accordance with established regulations in a safe and wholesome manner.
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Is there ammonium in Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB)?

Yes. In fact, there is no such thing as “ammonium-free” beef. Ammonium is an essential nutrient already present in foods, including meat.

In our process, the natural amount of pure ammonium in beef is increased by a minute amount because it is a powerful defense against potential germs. Although not required to make LFTB, we added this innovative step because it is important to us to provide the safest beef possible to our customers.
Having been thoroughly reviewed and approved by the USDA and FDA, ammonium has proven to be one of the most effective advances in food safety today.
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When Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) is blended into ground beef, will it be labeled?

Ground beef is a single ingredient product (beef) and LFTB is 100% beef; therefore, it is not required to be listed separately on any label. We believe USDA’s decision to allow companies to voluntarily include information on their packaging regarding LFTB content is an important step in restoring consumer confidence in their ground beef.
BPI has strongly and publicly supported the USDA’s decision to allow companies to voluntarily include information on their packaging regarding LFTB content. Beef Products was the first company to publicly support the USDA’s decision; we were also the first to encourage our customers to exercise this option. We feel by exercising this option, companies can continue to provide a lean, safe, and nutritious lean beef product to an informed customer base. We want all consumers to have confidence in their ground beef choices.
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What do the experts say about Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB)?

Experts such as [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaiQ1TB3-nM"]Dr. Gary Acuff[/ame], Director of Food Safety and Professor of Microbiology at Texas A&M University and Dr. James Dickson, Professor of Animal Science and a Microbiologist with Iowa State University, among many others, have consistently reaffirmed that LFTB is 100% wholesome, safe, and nutritious lean beef . Many meat scientists, academics, food and safety experts, governmental officials, and consumer advocacy organizations have spoken on behalf of the food safety record and quality of LFTB. These experts include Dr. Richard Ray Raymond, former Under Secretary for The Food and Safety Inspection Service; Dr. Randy Phebus, a Meat Scientist and food and safety expert with The Food Science Institute at Kansas State University; Dr. Thomas Powell, Executive Director of the American Meat Association; and Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League, just to name a few.
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Is it really necessary to try to get every small bit of beef from a carcass?

Necessary? No. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely!
LFTB production makes it possible to have more of the leaner ground beef blends consumers desire at affordable prices. According to industry calculations, if LFTB were not produced, 850,000,000 lbs. of lean beef a year would need to be generated from some other source to meet consumer demand. It would be like throwing away 5,700 cattle a day. In a world where population is increasing*, red meat consumption is rising, and available supply is declining, it would seem that getting all the lean meat from every animal is the absolute necessary and responsible thing to do.
*According to the World Health Organization the world population is increasing by 220,000 people every day.
For more information, visit www.beefproducts.com
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Why is BPI involved in a lawsuit with ABC?

BPI Technology, Inc., Beef Products, Inc., and Freezing Machines, Inc. (collectively, “BPI”) filed a suit against the American Broadcast Companies, Inc. (ABC), ABC News, Inc., three ABC News reporters, and others for knowingly and intentionally publishing false and disparaging statements regarding BPI and its product, lean finely textured beef (LFTB). BPI alleges that ABC and others launched a concerted disinformation campaign against the companies, which had a significant adverse affect on BPI’s reputation, as well as a significant negative financial impact on the companies.
As a result of the disinformation campaign, BPI sales declined from approximately five million pounds of LFTB per week to less than two million pounds per week, three BPI facilities closed and more than 700 employees lost their jobs.


You can read the complaint and more about the lawsuit here.
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
Fred, you are presenting a lot of information that while interesting is not my point.

I get it, there is nothing in it that is going to hurt me. I am ignoring that point.

I asked one question. Would you prefer, for your family meat with or without it?
My point, my only point is that to include a filler, or whatever you want to call it and not identify that you have done so is unethical. I think that people should be able to choose between a product without it, obviously for more cost, and a product with it.
 

waybomb

Well-known member
It's not a filler - it's the same meat that you make a steak or hot dog or hamburger out of! It's cow. Beef. Moo. Nothing but. Nobody added anything.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
I buy almost to exclusion "whole chicken" - more exactly, a whole fryer.

sometimes I cut it up.
sometimes I cook it whole.

regardless, there is a 'carcass' - or pieces thereof - left over.
which I simmer down, let cool, strip the meat.

and all this time I've been making chicken salad, chicken soup, chicken gravies, chicken pot pie, etc et al with Chicken Slime. the horrors of it.....

and then there's the 'omg it's got ammonia'
anyone ever heard of baker's ammonia?

and then there's the crowd screaming my chicken smells like chlorine.
chicken processing is a pretty messy business, they washing / rinse things so the consumer is not faced with feathers, blood and guts all over their pretty shrink wrapped chicken.

the tree huggers scream about wasted resources, so the industry uses 'recycled' water which them dang paper pushers at the FDA/USDA insist has to be de-germified, so they use something like chlorine (swimming pool pee anyone?) or ammonia to kill the baddie bugs.

for no impact on the environment, please stop eating now. for some reason, tree huggers find their poop entirely acceptable, but cow poop is not. go figger.
 
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