We are not really talking about pink slime

What a lovely way to title a blog post! Pink slime! Wednesday night, ABC news reported a story about a product that is found in many ground beef products. They reported that a ‘whistle-blower’ USDA employee has come out telling the world about the evils of ‘Lean Finely-Textured Beef.’ This former USDA microbiologist, coined the term ‘pink slime.’ Celebrity chef, Jaime Oliver has falsely reported about this product in the past, too. He is so off-base and his approach is so theatrical, I couldn’t even bear to link to his video. 

Since the ABC report, other news agencies have picked it up and informed us that Lean Finely-Textured Beef is in school lunches and in lots of the beef in grocery stores. The videos and the story links have been lighting up my facebook and Twitter feeds for the better part of two days. 

First, what is ‘Lean Finely-Textured Beef?’

What the media is calling pink slime, we, in the industry, call “Lean Beef Trimmings” or “Lean Finely Textured Beef”. I’ve done research with the stuff, and I didn’t think it was slimy at all. This is a picture of the LBT that we used for a research project last fall.

 

It is kinda pink. News flash: meat is usually a pink or red color! It doesn’t really look like the typical ground beef in the grocery store because it is ground up much finer than that. It is also shipped frozen. It may be shipped in big frozen blocks, but we ordered it in this chipped version so we could weigh it out more easily.

How is it made?

When cattle are harvested and cut into the beef steaks and roasts that we buy at the grocery store or that restaurants buy, pieces of lean and fat are trimmed away. Some of that lean and fat can be used to make ground beef and other sausage products. But, some of it is too fatty for ground beef and sausage. There is still lean protein in the fatty parts, but, before the Lean Finely-Textured Beef process came along, there was not really an economical way to remove the lean protein from the fatty trim. So it was thrown away.

Several years ago, a company called Beef Products Inc., patented a method to remove the lean tissue from the fatty trim. That way, the lean protein is not wasted and we are getting more protein out of every animal.

So, how does it work?

They start with fatty trim that is about 80% fat and 20% lean protein. These trimmings were sampled and tested by USDA for harmful bacteria before they arrived at the plant. The trimmings are heated it to about 100°F so that the fat will soften. Then, it is spun in a big mixing bowl machine to separate the lean from the fat.

The lean is then treated with a puff of ammonia gas and the ammonia reacts with the water on the product and converts it to ammonium hydroxide. This treatment has been one of the hot-button issues for this whole process. Ammonia gas and ammonium hydroxide are not the same as the house-hold cleaner, as a certain celebrity chef wants you to believe. The gas treatment raises the pH of the meat and destroys the bacteria on the meat. (Dead bacteria can’t make your kids sick.) Essentially, the ammonium hydroxide makes the product even safer.

Ammonium hydroxide is found naturally in some foods and other foods, such as baked goods, cheeses, caramels, chocolate, gelatins and puddings, contain ammonium hydroxide. Here is a video interview with Dr. Gary Acuff from Texas A&M talking about the addition of ammonium hydroxide to lean beef trimmings.

So, it’s safe?
The final product is tested for deadly bacteria before it leaves the plant. Countless scientists agree that this product is safe and is produced using a safe process. This article lists several of those scientists and statements they made about the safety of this product. These are microbiologists from Texas A and M University, scientists from USDA, a former president of the National Consumer League, and the nation’s leading food borne illness attorney.

What products contain LBT?
When LBT is made, it contains 95% lean protein or greater. So, it is added to ground beef to increase the lean percentage. Because of its fine texture, it can only be added in a small percentage or it will affect the texture of the ground beef. ABC reported that 70% of ground beef in grocery stores contain LBT. So far, I haven’t been able to confirm or deny that number. I couldn’t find the link to cite, but I believe that McDonald’s stopped using LBT because the finely textured properties didn’t work in their beef.


Is it on the label?

No. It is 100% beef. Lean Beef Trimmings is not listed as a separate ingredient on the label.

Obviously, I am not the only person writing about this. There are several other blogs and articles to read.
The American Meat Institute has a list of questions and answers about the process. My new twitter friend, Travis Arp, a graduate student at Colorado State, has seen the product being made and writes about it in this blog post. (New additions on Monday, March 12, 2012 - pinkslimeisamyth.com and a blog entitled Common Sense Agriculture)Beef Products Inc. has issued a statement about all the recent publicity. And, of course there is the Meat Myth Crushers video. The list could go on and on.


3-28-12 amendment: Since I posted this, several more websites and articles have been posted telling the real story about Lean Finely-Textured Beef, ammonium hydroxide, and the safety of this product. I felt like I needed to add them to this post.

• A video about the misrepresentation by Jaime Oliver.
• A video about the use of ammonia in foods.
• A interview with Dr. Thomas Powell, Executive Director of the American Meat Science Association (a personal friend of mine). This is a great explanation of this product.
• A statement from the American Meat Institute President, J. Patrick Boyle.
• A blog post by agriculture advocate, Trent Loos. (One huge step backwards for mankind.)
• Several website links are available on the website beefisbeef.com.
• A heart-wrenching article by Nancy Donley, president of STOP food borne illness. Her only child, Alex, died from kidney failure after consuming hamburger contaminated E. coli O157:H7.

 

Please read or watch some of these resources and share the truth with people you know.

Here is the bottom line on my thoughts about Lean Beef Trimmings.

Yes, it is safe. It is treated to kill bacteria.

Yes, it is wholesome. It is protein, that, without this process, we would not have access to.

Yes, I would feed it to my family. I do.

Disclaimer – the temperature and the ammonium hydroxide gas treatment are specific to the Lean Finely-Textured Beef product from one company. Other, similar products are also made, using similar processes.

McNugget Misclaims

In the days since my last post about McDonald’s, I have had a few questions about chicken nuggets. Apparently there is a photo and a link to a blog post from a holistic Dr. Akilah El blog about the Mechanically Separated Chicken that is allegedly added to chicken McNuggets. The claims in the post are so FALSE that I hate to even share the blog, but here you go. False claims. Linking it to the word ‘false’ made me feel a little better about linking to it at all.

First, this is a blog post. Anybody can start a blog and write stuff about anything and spread around the internet. (I guess the same could be said about me, but…)

They claim that MSC is added to chicken nuggets. Mechanically separated chicken is NOT an ingredient in the McDonald’s chicken McNugget. They contain white boneless chicken. If MSC was in chicken McNuggets, McDonald’s is required BY LAW to put it in the ingredient statement.

I looked at the ingredients for the nuggets at Wendy’s and Burger King, and didn’t find MSC in any of them, either.

Here is a link to a site from the National Chicken Council about what’s really in that chicken nugget.

So, what is MSC in, really? Mechanically separated chicken in often used in really inexpensive sausage products like non-species specific hotdogs and bologna. Sometimes you see it in other processed meats, but it will ALWAYS be on the ingredient statement.

How is it made? After workers remove all the chicken off the bones that they can, there is still protein (little meat scraps) left on the bones that human workers could not physically remove. So the bones are subjected to high pressure and water to remove the meat scraps. It is immediately frozen to preserve it, usually using some sort of anhydrous ammonia refrigeration.

So, ammonia is added to the meat? Nope, it’s just used to chill the air to freeze it. 

Why is MSC pink, then? Mechanically separated chicken is pink because the processors add nitrite to it. Remember my post about nitrite making meat pink? They add nitrite to help prevent it from oxidizing.

Is ammonia ever added to meat? You may have seen or heard something about ammonia being added to meat. Chef and food activist, Jaime Oliver, has posted some videos about it. He is misleading the public about a completely different product derived from beef. Our friends at Meat Myth Crushers have addressed this myth in this video with Dr. Gary Acuff from Texas A&M and I have written a blog post about it.

Is MSC safe to feed my family? Yes, it is safe. It’s a very inexpensive source of protein for processed meats. I am NOT afraid to feed it to my daughter. The products it is found in are usually very inexpensive and… well, they taste that way. We prefer BEEF hot dogs and bologna.

Back to the McNuggets. I am glad that people have asked me about the McNuggets. They are a good, inexpensive source of protein, and Vallie will actually eat them. Kids love to dip them in sauce. Their meat source is boneless white meat chicken. The next time you hear about the pink slime or goo or whatever they call it, you’ll know the truth and you can share.

12-9-14 ~ McDonald's has a great video about how their McNuggets are made. Go check it out!

Please, keep the questions and comments coming.