Anyone going to miss Pink Slime?

[Wild Cobra]

At least four Fast Food places announced in December they would stop using meat products with it. Recently some major Supermarkets announced they would no longer sell meat products with it.

Anyone going to miss their Pink Slime? By how much meat prices increase?

[ChumpDumper]

Cutting down on beef as it is, so I don't think I'll miss it too much.

[CosmicCowboy]

I only buy fresh ground beef so I won't have anything to miss.

[Wild Cobra]

I only buy fresh ground beef so I won't have anything to miss.
But your Ground Beef may have pink slime in it. Pink slime is recovered beef, so there is no labeling requirement.

[CosmicCowboy]

But your Ground Beef may have pink slime in it. Pink slime is recovered beef, so there is no labeling requirement.

It's really pretty easy to tell the difference, and yes, I only buy fresh ground beef, no pink slime. My wife brought some of that shit home from the Target superstore for me to grill before I knew about that shit...I could tell there was something weird about the color and the texture and went ahead and started to use it...it didn't even cook like ground beef and I threw it out.

[CosmicCowboy]

Actually, the ground beef I've been using the last few months is from an organic grass fed steer I raised and had custom slaughtered last November, so again, i'm' sure no pink slime.

[clambake]

Actually, the ground beef I've been using the last few months is from an organic grass fed steer I raised and had custom slaughtered last November, so again, i'm' sure no pink slime.

you killed norman?

[Wild Cobra]

Actually, the ground beef I've been using the last few months is from an organic grass fed steer I raised and had custom slaughtered last November, so again, i'm' sure no pink slime.
Good for you. That's how I would buy my beef if I bought it, but I don't buy beef anymore. When I have a craving for it, I go out for a steak dinner. Been a while since I bough a chunk of roast and made stew. I may have to do that again.

[clambake]

Good for you. That's how I would buy my beef if I bought it, but I don't buy beef anymore. When I have a craving for it, I go out for a steak dinner. Been a while since I bough a chunk of roast and made stew. I may have to do that again.

how many times have you raised a steer?

[Wild Cobra]

how many times have you raised a steer?
Never, but I'm familiar. Used to visit my grandparents rather often on their farm.

Why? You craving some Rocky Mountain Oysters?

[CosmicCowboy]

you killed norman?

Nope.

His name was T-Bone.

[clambake]

Never, but I'm familiar. Used to visit my grandparents rather often on their farm.
so, you bought meat from your grandparents?


Why? You craving some Rocky Mountain Oysters?

not surprising that thought is in your head.

[CosmicCowboy]

Somebody tell WC that steers don't have oysters.

[clambake]

Somebody tell WC that steers don't have oysters.

he doesn't know shit about steers.

[ElNono]

Not gonna miss ammonia, tbh... we buy at Costco which has a strict no pink slime policy

[Facts]

"Miss Pink Slime" would be a terrible beauty contest to win.

[mavs>spurs]

beef is bad for you by its very nature even if its organic and grass fed anyway...eat chicken and fish tbh, problem solved.

[Wild Cobra]

Somebody tell WC that steers don't have oysters.
When you make a steer out of a male calf, you have two Rocky Mountain Oysters as well.

Didn't you know that?

[JoeChalupa]

beef is bad for you by its very nature even if its organic and grass fed anyway...eat chicken and fish tbh, problem solved.

I'm tired of all the healthy nuts balls out there. Beef...it's what's for dinner.

[CosmicCowboy]

When you make a steer out of a male calf, you have two Rocky Mountain Oysters as well.

Didn't you know that?

I don't run a cow/calf operation anymore. I buy weaned steers around 400# and feed them out. Nuts are long gone by then.

[boutons_deux]

After Receiving $45,000 In Meat Industry Cash, Rep. Steve King Comes To Pink Slime’s Defense

KING: I’m on the phone today and throughout the weekend and into last week trying to establish a congressional hearing before the Ag Committee for Beef Products, Incorporated, so that we can put into the congressional record the nutritional value and the safety and the tastiness of their product which is an enhancement to hamburger.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/04/05/458558/steve-king-pink-slime/

[boutons_deux]

Could 'pink slime' be rebranded?

Three out of the four US factories making "lean beef trimmings" are to be shut down following a public outcry. Is "pink slime" - as critics call it - finished or could it be relaunched under a new name?

Industry fight-back

It might also be the first example of a food ingredient being withdrawn not because of any safety fears, but because people have decided it sounds disgusting.
Jamie Oliver Jamie Oliver first alerted Americans to what was in their burgers

Industry chiefs are furious about what they see as a media-led smear campaign against a product that has been used in the US since the early 1990s and meets federal food safety standards.

Earlier this week, they launched a fight back - unveiling a new slogan "Dude, it's beef" and enlisting the help of Texas governor and former presidential candidate Rick Perry, who dutifully chowed down on a burger containing the stuff on a visit to a processing plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska.

To British eyes, this stunt contains echoes of Conservative government minister John Gummer feeding his young daughter a beefburger, in front of the TV news cameras, at the height of the "mad cow disease" controversy in 1990.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17615456

[Wild Cobra Kai]

Somebody tell WC that steers don't have oysters.

You actually can't tell him anything, even the painfully obvious.

[boutons_deux]

"eat chicken"

oops:

Arsenic in Our Chicken?

a pair of new scientific studies suggesting that poultry on factory farms are routinely fed caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, banned antibiotics and even arsenic.

"We were kind of floored," said Keeve E. Nachman, a co-author of both studies and a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future. "It's unbelievable what we found."

Poultry-growing literature has recommended Benadryl to reduce anxiety among chickens, apparently because stressed chickens have tougher meat and grow more slowly. Tylenol and Prozac presumably serve the same purpose.

The same study also found that one-third of feather-meal samples contained an antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl. The great majority of feather meal contained acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. And feather-meal samples from China contained an antidepressant that is the active ingredient in Prozac.

Researchers found that most feather-meal samples contained caffeine. It turns out that chickens are sometimes fed coffee pulp and green tea powder to keep them awake so that they can spend more time eating. (Is that why they need the Benadryl, to calm them down?)

These findings will surprise some poultry farmers because even they often don't know what chemicals they feed their birds. Huge food companies require farmers to use a proprietary food mix, and the farmer typically doesn't know exactly what is in it.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=935055&f=28&sub=Columnist

[boutons_deux]

CAFO chemical garbage and industrial food-like substances: It's What's For S.A.D. Dinner.

[boutons_deux]

Iowa passed an "ag gag" law, criminalizing anybody taking pictures of CAFOs.

As the Patriot Act lovers would say: "What have they got to hide?"

[TeyshaBlue]

Another facet of the removal of LFTB.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/cityofate/2012/04/the_dollar_menu_economics_of_p.php

[CosmicCowboy]

If you think pink slime is bad you should watch them make hot dogs.

http://ak2.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/1169089/preview/mixing-meat-and-spices-for-making-hot-dogs-and-sausages.mp4

[greyforest]

the FDA might as well not exist

[boutons_deux]

USDA just made or proposed a change to pull govt chicken inspectors, and let chicken corps do their own inspections (for sick birds, etc). Self-regulation NEVER works.

[TeyshaBlue]

USDA just made or proposed a change to pull govt chicken inspectors, and let chicken corps do their own inspections (for sick birds, etc). Self-regulation NEVER works.

Chickens are effin' nasty birds. Ain't no way that's gonna work.

[boutons_deux]

all industrial food-like subtances are nasty, pathogenic shit.

[TeyshaBlue]

all industrial food-like subtances are nasty, pathogenic shit.

You've made me agree with you twice, now.

gfy.:lol

[Wild Cobra]

You actually can't tell him anything, even the painfully obvious.
Rocky Mountain Oysters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_mountain_oysters)

[boutons_deux]

48% of Chicken in Small Sample Has E. Coli

A recent test of packaged raw chicken products bought at grocery stores across the country found that roughly half of them were contaminated with the bacteria E. coli.

E. coli, which the study said was an indicator of fecal contamination, was found in 48 percent of 120 chicken products bought in 10 major cities by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group that advocates a vegetarian diet among other things. The study results were released Wednesday.

“Most consumers do not realize that feces are in the chicken products they purchase,” said Dr. Neal D. Barnard, president of the group. “Food labels discuss contamination as if it is simply the presence of bacteria, but people need to know that it means much more than that.”

Food safety specialists said the findings were a tempest in a chicken coop, particularly because the test was so small and the E. coli found was not a kind that threatened public health.

“What’s surprising to me is that they didn’t find more,” said Dr. Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. “Poop gets into your food, and not just into meat — produce is grown in soil fertilized with manure, and there’s E. coli in that, too.”

Dr. Doyle emphasized that the findings by the nonprofit group were different from the recent uproar over “pink slime,” the inexpensive filler containing ammonia gas or citric acid that is often added to ground beef products to kill E. coli and other bacteria. “That’s an additive,” he said.

Eight billion to nine billion chickens annually are processed for food in the United States, and the Department of Agriculture requires processors to do an E. coli test on one of every 22,000 birds slaughtered, or, for small producers, at least one a week.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/health/in-small-sample-e-coli-found-in-48-of-chicken-in-stores.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[boutons_deux]

ABC News hit with $1.2B defamation lawsuit over 'pink slime'


ABC News was hit with a $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit on Thursday by a South Dakota meat processor that accused it of misleading viewers into believing that a product that critics have dubbed "pink slime" was unsafe.

Beef Products Inc. sued over ABC reports aired in March and April about the company and its "lean finely textured beef."

In court papers, the company said ABC falsely told viewers that the beef product was not safe, not healthy, and not even meat, and that the reports have cost it much of its business and hundreds of millions of dollars in profit.

"The lawsuit is without merit," Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, a unit of Walt Disney Co., said in a statement. "We will contest it vigorously."

Six individuals were also sued, including ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, and the reporters Jim Avila and David Kerley.

Another defendant is Gerald Zirnstein, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist credited with coining the term "pink slime," and who appeared in ABC's reports. He could not be immediately reached for comment.

ABC conducted a "sustained and vicious disinformation campaign," Beef Products' lawyer Dan Webb, chairman of Winston & Strawn and a former U.S. attorney in Chicago, said at a press briefing.

"To call a food product slime is the most pejorative term that could be imagined," he said. "ABC's constant repetition of it, night after night after night, had a huge impact on the consuming public."

Beef Products accused ABC News of acting with actual malice in producing its reports, a high legal standard to meet.

"These kinds of cases are hard to win, because courts have given media many protections in reporting on matters of public concern," said Bruce Rosen, a partner and media law specialist at McCusker, Anselmi, Rosen & Carvelli in Florham Park, New Jersey.

"Constitutionally, the plaintiff has to show ABC knew what it was broadcasting was false, or had very strong reasons to know, and ignored them," he said. "It's a very hard standard to overcome. Dan Webb will have his hands full."

Beef Products is the largest U.S. producer of lean finely textured beef, a filler made from fatty trimmings that are sprayed with ammonia to kill bacteria.

The Department of Agriculture approved use of the product in ground beef in 1993, and affirmed its safety in March.

But that has failed to quiet critics, which have included food safety activists as well as animal rights organizations.

Large customers have also taken note, with companies such as McDonald's Corp., Yum Brands Inc.'s Taco Bell and supermarket chain Safeway Inc. having halted their purchases of the product.

Other courts have addressed similar claims in the past.

In 2000, a federal appeals court rejected defamation claims by Texas cattle ranchers against talk show host Oprah Winfrey over a "dangerous food" episode of her eponymous show, where she was accused of falsely depicting U.S. beef as unsafe in the wake of a British panic over "mad cow" disease.

http://mobile.chicagotribune.com/p.p?m=b&a=rp&id=2708465&postId=2708465&postUserId=54&sessionToken=&catId=5551&curAbsIndex=0&resultsUrl=DID%3D6%26DFCL%3D1000%26DSB%3Drank%2523 desc%26DBFQ%3DuserId%253A54%26DFC%3Dcat1%252Ccat2% 252Ccat3%26DL.w%3D%26DL.d%3D10%26DQ%3DsectionId%25 3A5551%26DPS%3D0%26DPL%3D3

[Blake]

”even though it's pink and slimy, you still have no right to call it........”