Ughlicious

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2009
Ughlicious
12
Sun, 01-10-2010 - 7:01pm

In the category of stuff I never knew, over the last 8 years, a beef "manufacturer" has been using ammonia in ground beef.  Would you like catsup, mustard, mayo, or ammonia on that burger? 


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=print


December 31, 2009



Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned


Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.


The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella.


Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.


With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.


But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.


In July, school lunch officials temporarily banned their hamburger makers from using meat from a Beef Products facility in Kansas because of salmonella — the third suspension in three years, records show. Yet the facility remained approved by the U.S.D.A. for other customers.


Presented by The Times with the school lunch test results, top department officials said they were not aware of what their colleagues in the lunch program had been finding for years.


In response, the agriculture department said it was revoking Beef Products’ exemption from routine testing and conducting a review of the company’s operations and research. The department said it was also reversing its policy for handling Beef Products during pathogen outbreaks. Since it was seen as pathogen-free, the processed beef was excluded from recalls, even when it was an ingredient in hamburgers found to be contaminated.


(snip)


The company says its processed beef, a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips, is used in a majority of the hamburger sold nationwide. But it has remained little known outside industry and government circles. Federal officials agreed to the company’s request that the ammonia be classified as a “processing agent” and not an ingredient that would be listed on labels.


(snip)


With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.


But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.>>>extensive article at the link above


 


 

 


 


~OPAL~                   

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
In reply to: mombitsey
Mon, 01-11-2010 - 11:22am

GROSS!!!!


>"while the school lunch program will not buy meat contaminated with salmonella, the agriculture department does not ban its sale to the general public."<


>"Mr. Roth spent the 1990s looking to give Beef Products a competitive edge by turning fatty slaughterhouse trimmings into usable lean beef.


Mr. Roth and others in the industry had discovered that liquefying the fat and extracting the protein from the trimmings in a centrifuge resulted in a lean product that was desirable to hamburger-makers."<


>"Gerald Zirnstein, called the processed beef "pink slime" in a 2002 e-mail message to colleagues and said, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”"<


I don't eat fast food but thanks for posting. I'm forwarding this article onto friends.

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2009
In reply to: mombitsey
Mon, 01-11-2010 - 11:59am
Yes...it is totally gross. This is why I think people should visit a butcher and have round or chuck ground for them. Or...lots of people have meat grinders for their food processors and stand mixers. They can grind their own meat.

 

Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 8:25am
I'm bringing this up again. I'm wondering why it didn't get many responses! I guess people all eat ground chuck or round or sirloin! Maybe since the change was made during Bush's reign it was OK. If Obama made the change folks would be all over him on it. We really should be concern with what goes into our FOOD, not how much some can make money on it!
Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 8:39am
I try to grind my own meat with the stand mixer and attachment. Not that easy, or I haven't mastered it but it works. I would have the meat department grind their own, if not, and I've heard that Costco does it in house. There are so many problems w/ mass produced meats. When you eat one burger, you're eating hundreds of cows. That said, I don't make my own sausages, though it's crossed my mind that I should start. BTW, love the word ughlicious.










iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2009
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 8:45am

If the meat is cooked properly and handled properly, it is generally not a problem. Chicken is tainted with Salmonella too, as are eggs.

The key is cooking and handling properly. No more rare burgers....lol.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 9:49am

"The key is cooking and handling properly. No more rare burgers....lol."


Did you open the link provided?


>"while the school lunch program will not buy meat contaminated with salmonella, the agriculture department does not ban its sale to the general public."<


>"Mr. Roth spent the 1990s looking to give Beef Products a competitive edge by turning fatty slaughterhouse trimmings into usable lean beef.


Mr. Roth and others in the industry had discovered that liquefying the fat and extracting the protein from the trimmings in a centrifuge resulted in a lean product that was desirable to hamburger-makers."<


>"Gerald Zirnstein, called the processed beef "pink slime" in a 2002 e-mail message to colleagues and said, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”"<

 


Photobucket&nbs

Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 9:51am

The problem I had with the ground meat

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 9:51am
I buy sirloin ground on the premises.

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2009
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 12:25pm
Yes...that is what I always thought, but the fact is that we're using a meat-like extruded product to extend ground beef AND using ammonia to "sanitize/disinfect" it. We're eating that product in our MacDonalds and Burger King hamburgers, buying it at our supermarkets, and feeding it to children via their school lunch program. Yes, I know it is a beef product, but do we really want to eat this cr^p? From now on, it is ground round and no "hamburgers" from restaurants for me.

 

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
In reply to: mombitsey
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 12:42pm
Added to that, one of the only reasons to eat ground beef when you come down to it is for taste and well done burgers are just not that good. I'd pass on it.










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