McDonalds Removing ‘Pink Slime’ From Burger Recipe

Nobody wants to eat questionable cow parts and nobody wants to wash them down with ammonia, but if you’re an avid fast food and beef eater, you’ve probably consumed quite a bit of it thanks to “pink slime”, a controversial ground beef additive.

According to recent reports, it looks like a few fast food joints are catching on to customers’ distaste, and increased public awareness. McDonald’s has reportedly said they no longer use pink slime in their hamburger recipe, and supposedly Burger King and Taco bell are making the same move.

So called pink slime consists of spare beef trimmings that wouldn’t normally go into products for sanitary reasons, but trace amounts of ammonium hydroxide make it “safe.” Many Americans have been eating pink slime since 2001 without even knowing it, but Jamie Oliver gave it worldwide attention after more than mentioning it on his show “Food Revolution.”

Aside from Jamie Oliver’s pink slime controversy, The New York Times and the documentary “Food Inc” have also raised serious doubts in investigations about the product. In 2007, the USDA increased testing standards for ground beef, but specifically exempted pink slime despite the fact that it comes from cow parts that are more likely to be infected with pathogens. Their excuse? Ammonia treatments would kill the bacteria. That’s settling, isn’t it?

So why is pink slime thrown in there, anyway? Money is the main argument, of course, but it turns out the pink slime only cuts the price of a pound of ground beef by a few cents.

Will this affect where you get your food from in any way?

via Huffington Post