I don’t usually eat anything that processed, though I do eat the occasional hot dog, which I assume uses a very similar type of product. I’m also guessing some of the turkey sausage has a bit of this as a filler.I generally avoid fast food places. Even though I am one for a guilty pleasure, I never liked the consistency of the overly processed chicken and beef and I’d rather have a nice burger at a normal restaurant than a spongy fast food burger.
I think that using the end bits of meat and finding a way to keep them safe is okay, but I also think people should be aware of what they eating. All things in moderation. I didn’t particularly find it odd that the FDA was not on top of its response to the issue, which was more of a press concoction than an issue generated by the organization itself. The emails seem like normal stuff to me. In my industry we have had similar things happen where a competitor will make a big deal over some minute technical feature that has little impact on real performance but which they are using as a scare tactic to get people who are not on top of all the technical nuances afraid that our product is not as good as theirs.

Just a bunch of self-important d-bags patting themselves on the back.

Yup, anyone who has different priorities than you is a ‘self-important d-bag’.

You might want to look up the meaning of ‘self-important’.

Don’t worry about the ammonia that is still in the slime, there is more ppm of it on that slice of cheese or the bun on the same burger.

edit: Yeah, self-important, as in you are really into yourselves and your thoughts on the matter, when all of the academics, the usda, they have the opposite story on this product but you just carry on making articles gloating about how you stuck it to them. Sounds pretty self-important to me… Sounds like you’re so into your own narrative you missed the facts of the story. Did you read all the pages of the BPI vs. ABC lawsuit? I did. You’d better hope they lose, otherwise you’ll look pretty bad seeing as they’re being sued for saying the same crap you’ve said about it.

Enjoy patting yourself on the backs over your conspiracy theory. Since you’ve blocked me from new comments here your critics won’t be ruining your little party.

I understand, though, this is the Internet, and any posting about food needs some dork’s pointless, appropos-of-nothing vegan-bashing.

And, yes, ground meat products are inherently more dangerous as one is less likely to get any contaminant up to “kill” temps, but I’m not sure how that makes pink slime any more risky than other ground products.

In order to neutralize pathogens successfully in the trimmings, you have to dial up the pH significantly(and, if you do that, it does work, which is the reason that the process was approved). However, if you do ammoniate it that hard, even hardened institutional customers start calling and asking if the product is supposed to smell like that when it starts to thaw.

So, you cut back on the ammonia, and now you are shipping a product that is palatable; but is substantially less disinfected than it is supposed to be.

That’s the real issue with the ammonia in this context: because of the high pathogen risk with these trimmings(which is not improved by the fact that they usually end up in ground beef), the ‘safe, also doesn’t smell like high concentrations of ammonia’ window is quite narrow. In practice, this caused the manufacturer to oscillate back and forth, playing the “Oh, totally ammoniated and safe, no need to inspect” whenever pathogen concerns arose; but frequently shipping product that was only ammoniated to unproven or known-risky levels for reasons of palatability.

Now, I like my hamburger medium rare, so that means only home-ground for me, but that’s a different issue.

- It was approved in 1991 as “fat reduced beef” (Bush I), but not allowed in ground beef

- It was again approved in 1993 as “lean finely textured beef” (Clinton) with no requirement that it be listed as a separate ingredient

- 2001 was the approval of the use of ammonium hydroxide (Bush II)

This not necessarily aimed at you :)

Just because it’s fat content is below a certain amount does not mean
the contents of said product are necessarily appetising, or particularly good for you?

You asked why it was labeled “lean”.  I answered why it was labeled “lean”.  Nothing more, nothing less.

By all means eat local free-range meats if that’s in your budget, but in the meantime killing the e.coli is better than not killing the e.coli – real people die horribly from it.

“Pink slime” reminds me of “kooties”.

Specificly the USDA considers beef with less than 10 grams of fat per 3oz serving “lean”.

As for “Using” all the animal! So why is it less and less people turn their noses up at things like; liver, kidneys in other words offal? But are quite happy to stuff their faces with industrialised processed crap?

Lastly please don’t give the likes of McDonalds, Taco Bell etc, the pleasure of calling them “Restaurants”. Please go to real one’s.