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Outraged Citizens Force USDA to Cave on Pink Slime in Schools

  • Spence Cooper
  • March 19, 2012

As a result of an online petition asking the secretary of Agriculture to remove pink slime from the school lunch program, the USDA will adjust requirements so schools will be able to choose whether to order hamburger made with pink slime.

The USDA purchased 7 million pounds of pink slime for public school cafeterias from South Dakota-based Beef Products Incorporated.

In early March, a blog called TheLunchTray.com started an online petition asking the secretary of Agriculture to remove it from the school lunch program; thus far, the petition has secured 234,714 signatures.

Pink slime is made by grinding together connective tissue and beef scraps normally used for dog food, which is then treated with ammonia hydroxide. The resulting pinkish substance is then blended into ground beef and hamburger patties.

Gerald Zirnstein, a former United States Department of Agriculture scientist and, now, whistleblower, claims 70 percent of the ground beef we buy at the supermarket contains “pink slime”

Outraged Citizens Force USDA to Cave on Pink Slime in Schools“I have a 2-year-old son,”said Zirnstein. “And you better believe I don’t want him eating pink slime when he starts going to school. It’s economic fraud. It’s not fresh ground beef. It’s a cheap substitute being added in”

“We originally called it soylent pink,”said Carl Custer, a retired microbiologist and 35-year veteran of the Food Safety Inspection Service.

According to Custer, the product is not really beef, but “a salvage product” fat that had been heated at a low temperature and the excess fat spun out”

Custer explains that the waste trimmings to make pink slime are simmered at low heat so the fat separates easily from the muscle.

The trimmings are spun using a centrifuge to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes where it is sprayed with ammonia gas to kill bacteria.

The process is completed by packaging the meat into bricks. Then, it is frozen and shipped to grocery stores and meat packers, where it is added to most ground beef.

Pink slime does not have to appear on the label because, over objections of its own scientists, USDA officials with links to the beef industry labeled it meat.

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University says the USDA is trying to manage a public relations problem, not a health concern: “Pink slime may be safe, nutritious, and cheap, but it’s yucky. It’s kind of like pet food. But for kids? I don’t think so.”

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