You may have seen the recent news reports about the pink slime that is put into the ground beef that is sent to schools for children's lunches. The number of concerned parents has steadily risen, with 170,000 signatures on one petition to ban the practice. However, the beef industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains that pink slime is good for kids.
Bettina Siegel, a food columnist and mom of two, started a petition to ban the pink slime from the National School Lunch Program and by Monday she had reached 170,000 signatures. However, a meat industry spokesman had this to say about pink slime:
Including LFTB [lean finely textured beef, otherwise known as 'pink slime'] in the National School Lunch Program's beef products accomplishes three important goals on behalf of 32 million kids. It 1) improves the nutritional profile, 2) increases the safety of the products and 3) meets the budget parameters that allow the school lunch program to feed kids nationwide every day.
In addition to this statement, the USDA and the Beef Products Incorporated (BPI) have launched a Twitter campaign called "Pink Slime is a Myth". What they don't mention is that adding pink slime to ground beef generates about 3 cents per pound of meat produced. So what exactly is "pink slime"? According to the BPI, it is a mixture of bovine waste trimmings that are disinfected with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens like E. coli or Salmonella. These pathogens are more likely to be in meat scraps. Currently, about 70% of all meat in the U.S. contains pink slime, but for consumers who choose not to purchase meat with fillers, Kroger's, Whole Foods, Costco, Publix, and Top Markets all say they don't sell it. In addition, McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell have all stopped using meat with pink slime after the public outcry.
