Should We Be Worried About Pink Slime or the Other 26 Weird Ingredients in School Burgers?

Recently I've blogged about pink slime and the uproar over its use in ground beef used to make school lunch burgers. But maybe the pink slim is the least of our worries, considering that a recent NPR story highlighted the fact that school lunch burgers contained 26 other ingredients, many I struggle to pronounce, let alone know why they are in

our children's lunch burgers.

Thiamine mononitrate, disodium inosinate, pyridoxine hydrochloride…these are just a few of the ingredients listed in school lunch burgers and even in veggie burgers sold in local grocery stores. Why are these ingredients included in our food? The answers are as unique as the ingredients. However, for parents like Ryan Lonnett, whose children attend Fairfax, VA schools, he'd rather not put unknown ingredients into his body, or his kids' bodies.

Lonnett and several parents advocate for schools to return to the days of cooking food from scratch. However, Penny McConnell, who directs the county's Office of Food and Nutrition Services, says it isn't that easy since she doesn't have the space to make food from scratch or ensure that there won't be cross-contamination between raw meat and other foods. Ann Cooper, on the other hand, who is director of nutrition services of Boulder Valley School District in Colorado has made the move back to cooking from scratch and says that the emphasis on whole, real foods will help to ensure our kids' health.