Gov’t purchasing millions of pounds of ‘pink slime’ beef for school lunches

[AnCap Dave]

Source

One month after a North Carolina elementary school teacher determined that a lunch consisting of a turkey sandwich, banana, chips and a juice box wasn't healthy enough for a four-year-old student, it has emerged that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has purchased almost seven million pounds of a controversial meat product now commonly called "pink slime" to serve in public schools.

While some observers are convinced it's unsafe to eat, others see it as safer than — or at least as safe as — other beef products that Americans eat on a regular basis.

The meat industry calls it Lean Finely Textured Beef, and first provided it to school foodservice programs in the 1990s. Now former USDA scientist-turned-whistleblower Gerald Zirnstein says roughly 70 percent of all ground beef purchased in the United States contains the processed product.

"It's economic fraud; it's not fresh ground beef. It's a substitute, a cheap substitute," Zirnstein told ABC News.

"We originally called it soylent pink," another USDA scientist, Carl Custer, told The Daily. "We looked at the product, and we objected to it because it used connective tissue instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]."

The so-called "pink slime" is a mixture of leftover beef trimmings and other beef parts that remain after larger cuts are trimmed down.

Food scientists have developed a process that involves lightly heating the meat to help separate its fat content from muscle, then using a centrifuge to complete the separation. Finally, the meat is pushed through a series of pipes, where it is sprayed with ammonium hydroxide gas to destroy bacteria.

The gas raises the Ph level — the acidity — of the meat mixture to a level at which most bacteria can't survive.

USDA spokesman Aaron Lavallee told The Daily Caller on Friday that both the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service classify ammonium hydroxide in the "Generally Recognized As Safe" (GRAS) category. This means the ingredient can be used without special regulatory approval from the government.

Other ingredients with GRAS status include citric acid, fish oil, gelatin, peanut oil and baking soda.

This year, the National School Lunch Program will use more than 111 million pounds of ground beef. Only about 6.5 percent of that amount will be the "pink slime" mixture, Lavellee told TheDC. But regulations allow up to 15 percent in beef products.

In 2009 the New York Times reported that between 2005 and 2009, the engineered beef product tested positive for salmonella four times more often than traditional ground beef.

The USDA is defending the decision to buy it.

"All USDA ground beef purchases must meet the highest standards for food safety. USDA has strengthened ground beef food safety standards in recent years and only allows products into commerce that we have confidence are safe," Lavelle explained.

The USDA upped its order of Lean Finely Textured Beef for school lunches by roughly 1.5 million pounds between 2009 and 2012, according to a New York Times report. Meanwhile, First Lady Michelle Obama recently announced a new set of school lunch nutrition guidelines – which doesn't mention the product at all.

"As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat and ensure that they have a reasonable balanced diet," Mrs. Obama said in a statement. "And when we are putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria."

Some food activists have cried foul over the product's use. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, for example, organized a successful public campaign against it.

A short while later, fast-food chain McDonald's agreed to stop using the mixture in its ground beef. Rivals Burger King and Taco Bell have followed suit.

Bettina Siegel, a blogger at The Lunch Tray, started an online petition to exclude the controversial mixture from school meals. Her petition collected more than 24,000 signatures in only four days.

"That is what got me angry: the fact that school children are captive to what is served in the cafeteria, and they have to eat what the government serves," she told The Daily Caller. "The fast-food industry's choice to respond to consumer concerns proves that consumers can vote with their dollar, but these kids have absolutely no say."

American Meat Institute president J. Patrick Boyle issued a statement that substituted the name "Boneless lean beef trimmings" (BLBT) for the same product.

"Some recent media reports created a troubling and inaccurate picture, particularly in their use of the colloquial term 'pink slime.' The fact is, BLBT is beef," American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle said in a statement."The beef trimmings that are used to make BLBT are absolutely edible. In fact, no process can somehow make an inedible meat edible; it's impossible."

The company that makes "pink slime" is Beef Products Inc. (BPI)

ABC News reported that Joann Smith, a former under secretary of agriculture, made the decision to include the company's product in ground beef, earning BPI millions of dollars from the deal.

Smith eventually left her post at the USDA in 1993 and was appointed to the board of directors of BPI's principal major supplier. As a board member, she earned approximately $1.2 million over 17 years, ABC reported.

The move was legal at the time, but current ethics rules would have prevented her appointment.

Beef Products Inc. did not return calls seeking comment.

"That is what got me angry: the fact that school children are captive to what is served in the cafeteria, and they have to eat what the government serves," she told The Daily Caller. "The fast-food industry's choice to respond to consumer concerns proves that consumers can vote with their dollar, but these kids have absolutely no say."

Glad to see one person gets this.

This story is just more evidence that the government gives no fucks about people's concerns or worries, and they never will.

[Ibrahim90]

even military Doctors and laymen in the 18th century knew you don't even feed dying people this shit. and yet, we now see government doing just that to kids.

does that mean government officials are more incompetent that military doctors in the Seven Years' War? the ones who, under their ward, 40% of their patients died?  when government makes those assholes look competent, one knows its time for a change.

[AnCap Dave]

even military Doctors and laymen in the 18th century knew you don't even feed dying people this shit. and yet, we now see government doing just that to kids.

does that mean government officials are more incompetent that military doctors in the Seven Years' War? the ones who, under their ward, 40% of their patients died?  when government makes those assholes look competent, one knows its time for a change.

Technically, the stuff isn't going to kill you, but the biggest beef (no pun intended) that I have with the situation is the fact that government claims that they actually care about the nutrition of school children to the point that they'll point guns at people and tell them what they can and can't let their children eat in school, but then they go and force kids to eat something with absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever.

[Ibrahim90]

Technically, the stuff isn't going to kill you, but the biggest beef (no pun intended) that I have with the situation is the fact that government claims that they actually care about the nutrition of school children to the point that they'll point guns at people and tell them what they can and can't let their children eat in school, but then they go and force kids to eat something with absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever.

true, it won't kill anyone, but it doesn't change the fact that that shit is not fit for human consumption. This is especially as it has no nutritional value, as you yourself point out. it's simply not something you feed to people--especially children. people back in the 18th century went a step further, and wouldn't even feed it to the sick and dying.

simply put: not only do I agree with you that the government has no business dictating this, but I would also add that these people are seethingly incompetent-especially as even 18th century military doctors knew better: I point I think everyone here can agree on.

[Travis Retriever]

even military Doctors and laymen in the 18th century knew you don't even feed dying people this shit. and yet, we now see government doing just that to kids.

does that mean government officials are more incompetent that military doctors in the Seven Years' War? the ones who, under their ward, 40% of their patients died?  when government makes those assholes look competent, one knows its time for a change.

Well, technically, if they are military, then they are government, by definition.

[Ibrahim90]

Well, technically, if they are military, then they are government, by definition.

point taken: this would indeed be the case in normal circumstances.

but for the period I referenced: yes, and no.

yes, some army doctors were government led and certified (e.g. Austria and Spain), but the rest were either paid/supplied/staffed via a private company that signed a contract for the government, and worked under their supervision (France and in some periods, Spain), or just ad hoc recruited civilian doctors when they were needed for wars (Prussia). others still would have a skeleton crew to be maintained by the individual regiments, and augmented by civilian volunteers (Britain).

in short: some were civilians, some were government officials. unsurprisingly, the latter usually sucked (see the article below on Spanish naval medical services). armies whose commanders (usually the monarch) mistrusted doctors were the worst: Prussia was a worst case scenario, with one regiment (Jung Braunschweig) taking 3-400% casualties. and few were from battle.


http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=French_Army_Medical_Services  (I figured I'd provide a source: it's about the French Army hospital: I co-authored it)

http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Spanish_Naval_Medical_Services (Spanish naval medical services: no, I didn't write this one)