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McDonald’s Pink Slime is Off the Menu

Posted: January 31, 2012

mcdonalds pink slime

No, not the pink goo in the viral Chicken McNuggets pic, but the controversial McDonald’s “pink slime” that goes into making their ubiquitous hamburger patties.

It’s not officially called pink slime, because, ew, then who would eat it? But as we know, words often win over hearts and minds, and after Jamie Oliver dubbed the extra bits of cow laying around (treated with chemicals to kill bacteria and added to burgers to beef them up) pink slime, McDonald’s announced that it would no longer be using the filler to stretch meat bits out- kind of like meatloaf, but with chemicals instead of breadcrumbs. Super ew.

So, you may not like the idea of ingesting the dirtiest parts of a cow, soaked in ammonia to keep it from making you sick because it’s so potentially dirty. But the government has repeatedly denied McDonald’s pink slime is a danger to people who eat food. The Huffington Post explains:

The USDA, for its part, approved of the ammoniated beef trimmings. In 2007, when it mandated increased testing for most ground beef, it specifically exempted “pink slime,” even though the ammoniated beef comes from the parts of the cow most likely to harbor pathogens. The USDA argued that the beef’s ammonia treatment would kill any bacteria lingering in the beef… And there’s some evidence that the USDA wasn’t wrong to call “pink slime” safe. Indeed, a Jan. 9 editorial in Food Safety News argued that the public backlash against pink slime had more to do with fear-mongering on the part of figures like Oliver than with any rational assessment of the product itself.

Despite the government’s failure to strike McDonald’s pink slime from the food supply, the company actually stepped up and removed it under public pressure- which is kind of a win for opponents like Jamie Oliver, who kicked off the pink slime outcry. Do you think things like ammoniated beef should allowed in food products?



Comments


23 Archived Responses to “ McDonald’s Pink Slime is Off the Menu ”

  1. Yuck…You never know what you are eating….

  2. Katrina Slabchuck
    Feb 1, 2012

    Ewww…soylent green. What are they going to feed us next?

  3. you know, when your own government says that eating "ammoniated beef trimmings" is ok, "even though the ammoniated beef comes from the parts of the cow most likely to harbor pathogens" it's well past the time to trust them with any decisions about what you should eat. To me that just makes the USDA worthless, and the statement "USDA approved", laughable. I mean, is there anything that WOULDN'T be approved? Even animal feces could probably be treated in such a way as to not kill me, but that doesn't mean I want it in my food. How disgusting.

  4. Jamie go back to England where they eat brains, kidneys, intestines, etc.

  5. Ty Sparrow
    Feb 2, 2012

    I don't care. Mcdonalds is delicious af

  6. Lynn Woitalla
    Feb 5, 2012

    Thanks for the link. That is so pathetic. It's all about the almighty buck. What other fillers are in the rest of the 85-98% of a "burger" that isn't meat? And the worst thing – it's not just McDonalds!

  7. Hello I made this video, and I thought that your audience might enjoy it. It’s about McDonalds and the goop.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bPJ2n6P4xk

  8. Marie St-Clair
    Feb 7, 2012

    Just don't eat that shiite! Gross enough as it is with or without pink slime. Why would anybody eat Macdonald ''food'' anyways? It's garbage! The one in my neighborhood closed down for lack of customers. I was elated! They don't care about you or your children. Stay AWAY! And that goes for EVERY fast food chain. Polluters of land, soil, body and mind. Violators of everything that is good and right.

  9. Ew… Ew… EW. EEEWW. EEEEEWWWW! More like "soylent pink".

    This shouldn't even be acceptable by the FDA as food. And as for the "just don't eat there" comments…They also serve it to our nation's children in public schools. Yes we have choices, but we also should be informed about what we're being fed. Make sure you know where your food comes from.

  10. Tobias Anker
    Mar 8, 2012

    hate to break it to you but there is a whole lot of intestine consumption in America. Ever had a sausage? that's what they case it in

  11. I would like to know what's in McDonald's nuggets.

  12. Pink Slime, is discussed in a new fictionalized short story but with real facts. Pink Slime has America in an uproar. It's the derogatory term for ground-up slaughterhouse meat scraps that's ammonia sanitized. Investigative reporter Digger Cavanaugh has his lunch ruined when a TV report shows what's in 70% of ground beef. Feeling betrayed by the USDA, he investigates pink slime and goes up the food chain. Things are not as he thought. Sample or purchase Pink Slime: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/142597.