Agricultural News
Beef Industry Voices Sounding Off on 'Pink Slime' Myths
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:19:14 CDT
Organizations representing beef producers are letting their voices be heard on a controversy which has stirred up main stream Americans at fast food restaurants and meat counters across the country.
At issue is a product called Finely Textured Lean Beef (FTLB) produced by Beef Products Incorporated. BPI produces the product by taking beef trimmings and heating them slightly before spinning them in a centrifuge to remove fat. Before being flash frozen and packaged, the FTLB is exposed to ammonia gas to kill germs, the same process used when packaging cheese, chocolates, puddings and baked goods.
An ABC news report in early March continually referred to the product as "pink slime" and claims "it is used in 70 percent of the ground beef sold at supermarkets and up to 25 percent of each American hamburger patty, by some estimates."
The ABC report, and others, highlight claims from industry critics insinuating the product is somehow unsafe or nutritionally deficient, though never providing any evidence to support their assertions. The USDA doesn't require meat labels to indicate FTLB has been added to ground beef because the product is 100 percent beef.
In response to media reports, customers began inquiring about the use of the product. Due to the number of inquiries and complaints, McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell have all said they will no longer use ground beef that includes FTLB.
Gene Hall of the Texas Farm Bureau takes on the critics in his online article "Pink slime isn't from a horror movie," which you can find by clicking here. He says, "Recent reports and accusations hint that this product is little more than pet food diverted to the human food chain. There is no truth to any of this." His article goes on to tackle three charges hurled at producers of FTLB.
Hall calls for consumers to examine the facts, not just the shrill cry from professional agitators: "There is not any way to make the inedible edible. Lean Finely-Textured Beef is beef. And that's the truth."
Each of Halls explanations, and four more, are answered by BPI on a website it has created called "Pink Slime Is a Myth." You can read it by clicking here.
You can also see ABC's original report on "Pink Slime and You" by clicking here.
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