‘Pink slime’ or ‘Dude, it’s beef’
ow what it really is, how and why it’s produced and that anyone who eats hamburgers has probably consumed one containing ammonia-laced filler?
Estimates are that 70 percent of U.S. ground beef contains it. Produced by Beef Products Inc. and three other companies, it has appeared for years in supermarkets, fast food restaurants and school lunch programs. But now, yielding to the “yuck factor,” several have advertised they won’t carry it any longer.
British chef Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution coined the term “pink slime” for what industry experts label “lean finely textured beef,” the most amazing euphemism ever designed to obscure the real nature and purpose of a product. Face it, pink slime is leftover trimmings from beef cuts, spun in a centrifuge to expel excess fat (hence the term “lean”). Because it probably contains salmonella and e-coli, maybe having been swept from the floor, it is treated with ammonia to kill microbes.
The problem isn’t the disgusting epithet. The problem is why the USDA permits this in any food destined for human consumption. Originally used only in dog food, it has migrated up the food chain.
Schools nationwide are demanding the USDA provide an alternative ground beef, sans slime. When the story broke in the media and social networks, school district officials at first were told there was no way they could find out if the ground beef shipped to their schools contained the additive. Requests by school districts to get cash from the USDA to buy meat from local producers were denied by the agency.
Subsequently, the USDA announced a change in policy allowing districts participating in the government’s school lunch program to refuse ground beef containing the filler. However, filler-free meat will not be available until next fall.
And because this is an election year, politicians are speaking to the issue. Montana Sen. Jon Tester (who faces a re-election challenge this year) says he will demand the USDA allow school districts in his state to purchase Montana beef for their school lunch programs. He has a good point. Buying locally is usually better in that the food is fresher, isn’t subjected to thousands of miles of shipping and is easier to track to the source if there is any problem.
But Texas Gov. Rick Perry has come to the defense of the meat industry saying, “Let’s call this product what it is and let “pink slime” become a term of the past.” And Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad called for a congressional hearing into who might be behind the “smear campaign” against the meat industry.
There are only about four companies that produce and market the product. One has filed for bankruptcy protection and the others are laying off workers or closing plants at a time when the economy is still struggling.
Cargill and Tyson, the country’s largest food companies, have stated that even though demand is down, they do not intend to close any plants.
Maybe they buy into what industry representatives say: that in six months it will be back to business as usual; that such stories have a short shelf life and pressure from Congress (yielding to pressure from industry) will force the USDA to back off.
Some say “re-branding” is necessary to relieve pressure from consumers. Such a campaign in Texas has produced the infamous t-shirts printed, “Dude, it’s beef.” The term pink slime was coined by a federal microbiologist and has appeared in media at least since a New York Times report in 2009. Celebrity chef Oliver, a champion of nutritious, locally produced food, has been railing against the product for more than two years. And last year, McDonald’s and several other fast food chains said they discontinued their use of “ammonia-treated” ground beef. Some market chains such as Kroger’s discontinued the sale of such meat products last year.
But what really touched a nerve came from Bettina Siegel of Houston, whose blog “The Lunch Tray” focuses on food marketed to children. She started an on-line petition on Change.org asking Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to put a stop to the use of “pink slime” in children’s school meals. The petition drive produced about 250,000 signatures; a bit of a record according to Change.org.
And, of course, vegetarians (I’m still working on it) are delighted to have another excuse to promote the health benefits of a plant-based diet. No re-branding required.