Pink Slime Moves to School Lunches After McDonald’s Bans It
Earlier this year, McDonald’s announced that it would no longer be serving food that contains the controversial “pink slime” component, present in many inexpensive beef products.
If you think the words pink slime sound unappetizing, wait until you find out what’s in it- the filler starts out its life as cow, but that’s basically its only common trait with edible, recognizable beef products. Pink slime is connective tissue, “trimmings” and other unusable parts which in and of themselves aren’t that bad, if you’re cool with eating hoof or whatever. But then the scraps are treated with ammonium hydroxide because without the ammonia, they could make you sick from e. coli or other fecal bacterias- all in all, not exactly something you want to touch, much less eat, most likely.
The Daily spoke with microbiologists Carl Custer and Gerald Zirnstein earlier this week after confirming that the USDA plans to purchase seven million pounds of the controversial semi-foodstuff for the federal school lunch program- the former says he initially objected to the substance (which used to be reserved for dog food) because he does not “consider the stuff to be ground beef,” and the latter says his “main objection was that it was not meat.” (Also, Simpsons did it!)
The Daily explains/quotes:
“Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval,” Zirnstein said.
A baseline study conducted by Zirstein and Custer classified the trimmings as a “high risk product.” Zirnstein says the food inspection service ignored their findings, and commissioned a separate study to assess the safety of BPI’s meat.
Would you let your kids consume pink slime, and do you plan on allowing them to continue buying school lunches?
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About the Author
Kim LaCapria Kim LaCapria is a writer and editor based in New York. A longtime information junkie, she began blogging full-time at the Inquisitr in 2009. Prior to that, she worked as a marketing assistant in the cosmetics and skincare industry. In addition to her writing for fortytwotimes, she also writes for Medacity and The Inquisitr. Kim is also a contributor for SocialNewsDaily, Indyposted, and TotallyMoney. In the past, she contributed to Lipstick and Luxury and managed social media accounts and blogs for several small and mid-sized businesses.
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