Patch Poll: Would You Eat a Hamburger Containing "Pink Slime?"
The recent outcry over the ammonia-treated meat filler dubbed "pink slime" is cited by a Pennsylvania-based beef company in its bankruptcy filing today. Some experts say the product is safe to eat. What do you think?
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A Pennsylvania-based beef producer today filed for bankruptcy, saying in court documents that it is a casualty of the ongoing controversy over the use of so-called "pink slime" beef filler in some of its products.
In its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy production, AFA Foods cited slumping demand following recent media coverage of the "pink slime" product, according to ABC News.
The company based in King of Prussia, Montgomery County, employs about 850 people, according to Bloomberg. Beef Products Inc., one of AFA’s competitors and the largest producer of the filler product, has also experienced a dramatic decline in sales and closed three of its four plants last week, according to Reuters.
Triggering the outcry: criticism from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and reports from ABC and other news agencies about the product the beef industry calls lean finely textured beef—scraps that have been processed, heated and treated with ammonia solution to kill bacteria. The product had been added to fast food, school lunches and 70 percent of all ground beef sold at grocery stores.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and beef industry officials have said the product is safe to consume. The USDA, however, now will permit school districts to opt out of using beef supplies that contain it in school lunches.
Many fast-food and major grocery chains also have suspended sales of beef containing the product. Among those groceries is O'Hara-based Giant Eagle, which last week announced that its stores—including those in Western Pennsylvania—no longer would sell the product.
"Giant Eagle is committed to providing our customers with safe and high-quality products, and we value their feedback on issues important to them, the company said in a statement.
"While boneless lean beef trim is USDA- and (Food and Drug Administration)-approved and has been considered safe and nutritious for more than 20 years, recent media attention on BLBT has prompted questions, confusion, and a decline in consumer confidence in the product," the company noted in its statement.
"After careful review of feedback from our customers, Giant Eagle has decided that effective immediately the company will no longer source fresh ground beef containing BLBT."
Should this product remain on the market? Is it safe to consume? Are you comfortable eating burgers or other products that contain it?
What do you think?
Thomas Perko
11:38 pm on Monday, April 2, 2012
Chicken Nuggets and Hot Dogs don't count?
Bill Baker
7:15 am on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Please get your facts right. It's not treated with ammonia. It's ammonium hydroxide. Look it up.
Carole McLeod
4:39 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Fine. . . It's ammonium hydroxide. I don't want to eat it by THAT name, either. If that means that I buy whole cuts and grind my own meat, so be it. At least I'll know what I'm eating.
Scott Dial
4:52 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
You had better checkout that Bun your putting that Home Ground Pattie on and Oh Yes,,, don't forget the Cheese, Both of which contain Ammonium Hydroxide Gas
Scott Dial
4:52 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
You had better checkout that Bun your putting that Home Ground Pattie on and Oh Yes,,, don't forget the Cheese, Both of which contain Ammonium Hydroxide Gas
Scott Dial
4:42 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
I spent my last weekend (March 29th and April 1st) cooking Hamburgers containing Lean Finely Trim Beef LFTB from BPI for several thousand Interested people. A great weekend filled with Only Positive Comments and Support for the great People of BPI. When I hear the word "SLIME" today , the only thing that comes to my mind is "Slime Ball" aka Jamie Oliver and of course the terribly mis-informed News Anchors at ABC Evening News
Helane Shields
8:28 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Seventy percent of US hamburger contains up to 25% per pound of "pink slime" which consists of the slaughterhouse floor wastes treated with ammonia and water to kill E. coli and Salmonella bacteria.
The problem is, ammonia does NOT inactivate mad cow prions which may be part of the ankle-deep muck of blood, fats, tissue and scraps on the floor:
Slaughterhouses are required to remove "SRM" - specified risk materials- the parts of a cow with the highest concentrations of prions. SRM include the skull, brain,ganglia, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and small intestine. Power tools, including chain saws, are used to cut up the carcasses.. It is unavoidable that potentially prion infected wastes from high risk tissues end up on the blood-soaked slaughterhouse floors - to be incorporated into the pink slime.
Alzheimer's is a prion disease - 6 million US victims. Prion Institute, Univ/Alberta - investigating autism epidemic as a prion disease. Link between tainted commercially processed hamburger and prion diseases ?
Helane Shields, Alton, NH www.alzheimers-prions.com/ hshields@tds.net
Scott Dial
11:08 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Helane Shields
You are so Far Out-0f-Bounds with your comments ...!!! The only thing I can Compliment you on is your very Mis-Guided Imagination ....
Christine Iwanski
2:04 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Scott -- I highly encourage you to watch (and everyone else to watch) the documentary "Food, Inc." Unless you work for BPI or another major conglomeration that owns/operates/runs commercially run slaughterhouses, it should serve as a wake up call. Regardless of whether or not the FDA thinks "Pink Slime" is safe, and regardless of whether or not it is Ammonia or Ammonium Hydroxide Gas, I do not want, nor do I want my family, to eat it.
Ryan
2:38 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Scott, I think we'd all be interesting in hearing what type of work you do. You seem awfully pro-pink slime.
The fact that you are anti Jamie Oliver says a lot. The man is simply trying to get people to eat healthier and if you look around at most Americans then you will see that we need all the help we can get.