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70 Percent of Ground Beef at Supermarkets Contains ‘Pink Slime’ (1 Viewer)

So people in this thread say regulation is bad because said companies being regulated cheat the system sometimes? Really? That's some impressive mental gymnastics right there. What's your answer then, since these companies clearly don't want to self regulate. Oh that's right, let the market decide, the right's favorite phrase. Well, what if the market can't make an informed decision 90% of the time? Because John Q Public doesn't have the resources to investigate every little thing in their everyday lives. That's why we have the press aka lame stream media, right? Except investigative reporting is expensive and time consuming when no company is forced to grant access. Not to mention the media is mostly owned by giant corporations that also probably have their hands dirty in something else. Hey, I've got an idea! How about we pool our resources, collectively, and get one knowledgeable dude, or maybe a group of dudes. We can call them experts! They can be on that ####, like a boss, making sure nobody is feeding us poison, and I'll have time to go to Timmy's soccer match. Wait a minute...THAT'S THE GOBENMENT! THE GOBENMENT IS BAD! THEY MAKE ME GIVE THEM MONEY SO I DON'T GET POISONED!!!
What the hell are you talking about?
 
So people in this thread say regulation is bad because said companies being regulated cheat the system sometimes? Really?
They don't need to cheat it. They rig it. (And it's a lot more than sometimes.)
What's your answer then, since these companies clearly don't want to self regulate.
A court system that awards injunctions against and damages for fraud.
Oh that's right, let the market decide, the right's favorite phrase.
Yes, buying only from sellers that you have good reason to trust would also work. (Or what tommyboy said in post #100.)
 
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I'd just like to point out that 100% of store bought beef contains hormones, most chickens are fed arsenic to fatten them up, and there are probably a lot more horror stories out there.

I get my beef, lamb and pork directly from the rancher. I know what the animal ate and that there are no additives.

Living rural has advantages.

 
I'd just like to point out that 100% of store bought beef contains hormones, most chickens are fed arsenic to fatten them up, and there are probably a lot more horror stories out there.

I get my beef, lamb and pork directly from the rancher. I know what the animal ate and that there are no additives.

Living rural has advantages.
In as much as 100% of cows have naturally occurring hormones, you're correct. But 100% of store bought beef does not contain added hormones. Many stores are getting on the naturally raised bandwagon.
 
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/03/26/pink-slime-company-suspends-operations-at-3-plants/

‘Pink Slime’ Company Suspends Operations At 3 Plants

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — The company that makes “pink slime” suspended operations Monday at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made, saying officials would work to address recent public concern about the product.

Beef Products Inc. will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company’s director of food safety and quality assurance. The company’s plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations.

“We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back,” Letch said. “It’s 100 percent beef.”

Federal regulators say the ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as “lean, finely textured beef,” meets food safety standards. But critics say the product could be unsafe and is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

The low-cost ingredient is made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat. The lean mix then is compressed into blocks for use in ground meat. The product is exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.

The result is a product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.

The product has been used for years, but it wasn’t until earlier this month that social media suddenly exploded with worry and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to allow school districts to stop using it and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from their shelves.

About 200 employees at each of the three plants will get full salary and benefits for 60 days during the suspension, Letch said. The plant in Amarillo produced about 200,000 pounds a day, while the Kansas and Iowa plants each produced about 350,000 pounds a day.
 
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/03/26/pink-slime-company-suspends-operations-at-3-plants/

‘Pink Slime’ Company Suspends Operations At 3 Plants

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — The company that makes “pink slime” suspended operations Monday at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made, saying officials would work to address recent public concern about the product.

Beef Products Inc. will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company’s director of food safety and quality assurance. The company’s plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations.

“We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back,” Letch said. “It’s 100 percent beef.”

Federal regulators say the ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as “lean, finely textured beef,” meets food safety standards. But critics say the product could be unsafe and is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

The low-cost ingredient is made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat. The lean mix then is compressed into blocks for use in ground meat. The product is exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.

The result is a product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.

The product has been used for years, but it wasn’t until earlier this month that social media suddenly exploded with worry and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to allow school districts to stop using it and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from their shelves.

About 200 employees at each of the three plants will get full salary and benefits for 60 days during the suspension, Letch said. The plant in Amarillo produced about 200,000 pounds a day, while the Kansas and Iowa plants each produced about 350,000 pounds a day.
It used to only be rated for use in pet foods. I don't think his business is coming back any time soon.
 
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/03/26/pink-slime-company-suspends-operations-at-3-plants/

‘Pink Slime’ Company Suspends Operations At 3 Plants

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — The company that makes “pink slime” suspended operations Monday at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made, saying officials would work to address recent public concern about the product.

Beef Products Inc. will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company’s director of food safety and quality assurance. The company’s plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations.

“We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back,” Letch said. “It’s 100 percent beef.”

Federal regulators say the ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as “lean, finely textured beef,” meets food safety standards. But critics say the product could be unsafe and is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

The low-cost ingredient is made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat. The lean mix then is compressed into blocks for use in ground meat. The product is exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.

The result is a product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.

The product has been used for years, but it wasn’t until earlier this month that social media suddenly exploded with worry and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to allow school districts to stop using it and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from their shelves.

About 200 employees at each of the three plants will get full salary and benefits for 60 days during the suspension, Letch said. The plant in Amarillo produced about 200,000 pounds a day, while the Kansas and Iowa plants each produced about 350,000 pounds a day.
It used to only be rated for use in pet foods. I don't think his business is coming back any time soon.
and it shouldn't
 
http://www.omaha.com/article/20120329/NEWS01/703299869#hy-vee-reverses-stance-on-pink-slime

Hy-Vee reverses stance on 'pink slime'

By Ross Boettcher

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

« Metro/RegionShare Related News

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•'Pink slime' sounds gross, but how...

Hy-Vee Inc., after being pressured by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, announced Wednesday that its stores would continue to offer ground beef containing a controversial ground beef additive.

Producers call it "lean, finely textured beef," but it has become widely known as "pink slime."

Hy-Vee's announcement, revealed during a Wednesday afternoon press conference in Des Moines with Branstad and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, marks a quick reversal of the Iowa-based chain's stance last week to join several other grocery chains and drop products containing the additive.

"The governor called and expressed his concern," Ruth Comer, a Hy-Vee spokeswoman said in an interview. "We were already looking at what we might do to take care of customers, and the governor's voice certainly did factor into the feedback we were already receiving."

The decision also marks the first public victory for the pro-beef lobby, including Beef Products Inc. the nation's largest producer of the additive.

BPI closed three of its four production plants earlier this week — laying off 650 workers — because demand for the product has been more than halved since the start of March.

This month has seen a crush of media coverage and social media campaigns against the product. Opponents are concerned about paying for a lesser product without it being disclosed and find it to be an unappetizing reminder about how meat gets produced.

The public concern has persuaded companies as large as McDonald's, as well as grocery chains, including Kroger Co., owner of Baker's Supermarkets, to announce that they're no longer using the additive.

A Branstad spokesman said the Governor's Office is working with Iowa economic development officials to assemble a list of retailers, restaurants and grocery stores for Branstad to call and urge support for BPI, its product and the workers.

About 200 people in Waterloo, Iowa, will lose jobs if the company can't reverse the decline in demand, and those jobs are at the root of Branstad's support for BPI, Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said.

"It's huge, he said. "These families are having their lives turned upside down because a company was subjected to a smear campaign. We're going to continue fighting for them."

Branstad said Wednesday that Iowa can ill afford to lose those jobs, especially given how important the agricultural industry is to the state's wider economy.

"We don't want people to quit eating beef," he said. "It's too important for our economy."

As of Wednesday evening, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's office said he doesn't have plans to lobby any grocery stores or restaurants operating in Nebraska that have ceased using beef containing BPI's additive.

Thursday, BPI will host a group of governors and lieutenant governors including Branstad, who organized the trip, and Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, at its South Sioux City, Neb., facility, the only BPI plant currently operating. Heineman's office said he had a conflict and wasn't sure he could be there.

Branstad said they will learn about BPI's production techniques and try to educate the public about the benefits of BPI's beef compound.

"We're going to go through the plant and see how its made, show it's safe, and even eat some of it," he said.

Vilsack and Branstad on Wednesday called the additive healthy, safe and historically less expensive than other ground beef products.

The additive is made from the leftover bits of meat that remain after steaks, ribs and roasts have been processed. The hunks of meat, fat and connective tissue are heated to roughly 100 degrees Fahrenheit and mechanically separated to remove most of the fat.

The mix, which can be up to 95 percent lean, is then pressed into blocks and treated with an ammonia gas to kill harmful bacteria including E. coli and salmonella. The product then is used in ground meat to cut down on its overall fat content.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't require meatpackers to disclose the additive on nutrition or ingredient labels. The USDA long has made the lean product a staple in the school lunch program, Vilsack said.

"This product is safe," he said. "There's no question about it. We have said that repeatedly. This product is safe."

But earlier this month, in response to the outcry, the USDA decided to give school districts the option of using ground beef with or without the additive.

"We're not in the business of mandates," Vilsack said Wednesday. "We're in the business of responding to concerns of our customers, in this case, the school districts."

Hy-Vee said in a statement that the company heard from many customers who asked them to continue carrying the product. "They want a choice."

Comer, the Hy-Vee spokeswoman, said the company's 235 stores in eight states, including Iowa and Nebraska, will use clear signage to show what products do contain the additive.

Vilsack compared the uproar over "pink slime" to the public concern in 2009 during the H1N1, or swine flu, epidemic. If the "pink slime" talk continues, he said, it could have a much wider impact on the U.S. beef industry, including putting pressure on beef exports.

"You have to be very, very careful about the terms you use," he said.
 
I'm sorry that people are losing their jobs because of this but that's not on the consumer, it's on the industry and politicians who decided that this stuff should be put into our food without telling us.

And I laugh at them calling this a smear campaign as if the term "lean, finely textured ground beef" is somehow a more honest description than "pink slime".

 
'Pink slime' processor files for Chapter 11

Associated Press

11:09 a.m. CDT, April 2, 2012

Beef products company AFA Foods said Monday that it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and selling its assets after the public outcry over the beef filler known as "pink slime" derailed its efforts to save its struggling business.

A spokesman for the company said in an email that it does not rely on boneless lean beef trimmings and uses it only based on customer specifications. But he said the controversy over the ammonia-treated meat filler has dramatically reduced demand for all ground beef products.

AFA Foods, based in King of Prussia, Pa., processes more than 500 million pounds of ground beef products a year. It distributes to retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Safeway Inc. and BJ's Wholesale Club. Food-service customers include Burger King, Jack in the Box and Wendy's.

AFA also sells products under the brand names Moran's, Stone River Ranch and Miller Quality Meats.

In the affidavit filed as part of the bankruptcy, interim CEO Ron Allen noted that the company has struggled for the past two years in a competitive industry marked by overcapacity and thin profit margins. He said AFA's profits have suffered because of decreasing retail demand, costly customer demands for product testing and growing competition from different types of meat.

AFA Foods had had been pursuing a turnaround strategy to increase sales to retail customers, but Allen said that the "unfounded public outcry" over the use pink slime, known in the industry as lean, finely textured beef strained those efforts.

AFA Foods said it secured $56 million in financing from its lenders to fund operations and expects to continue serving customers throughout the process.

The outcry over lean finely textured beef has has real consequences for other businesses. Last week, the governors of three states toured a plant of Beef Products Inc., the main processor of cheap lean beef, and criticized the media for scaring consumers with a moniker coined by critics.

BPI suspended operations at its plants in Texas, Kansas and Iowa last week because of the controversy, affecting 650 jobs.

The politicians who toured the plant -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Brownback, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy and South Dakota Lt. Gov. Matt Michels -- agreed with the industry view that the beef has been unfairly maligned and mislabeled and issued a joint statement earlier saying the product is safe.

Critics say the "pink slime," a term coined by a federal microbiologist who was grossed out by the product, is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-pink-slime-processor-files-for-chapter-11-20120402,0,3620111.story
 
I'm sorry that people are losing their jobs because of this but that's not on the consumer, it's on the industry and politicians who decided that this stuff should be put into our food without telling us.And I laugh at them calling this a smear campaign as if the term "lean, finely textured ground beef" is somehow a more honest description than "pink slime".
:goodposting:A couple of hundred jobs vs. feeding thousands (more?) ammonia treated waste. Amazing how ####ed up politicians' priorities are.
 
And the free market wins!
This was good to see. It wouldn't of worked if not for the whistle blower and media coverage who many are upset about, but this is the way it should work.
Though there was never any whistle blower, really. There was just a guy who called it pink slime in an internal email to a colleague in discussing it. He didn't go public with it.The only reason it came to light is because someone went digging via the Freedom of Information Act and found the email and then the one TV show heard of it and ran with it.
 
The practice of handing over regulatory agencies to the industries it's meant to regulate has been going on for a while. The fox watching the hen house mentality.
Exactly, and this is a really good reason for why regulation often isn't as good an idea as it might appear on paper. In some cases -- possibly this one -- it's actually counter-productive.
Off-topic to pink slime, but I found this quote from a WSJ article on regulatory capture pretty interesting:

[T]he revolving door may be driven by an entirely different force. Instead of "regulatory capture," the paper provides evidence consistent with "regulatory schooling" – the idea that people take regulatory jobs to become experts on complex regulations before cashing in with a private sector job. Instead of having an incentive to go easy on banks, the "regulatory schooling" hypothesis suggests regulators have an incentive to make rules more complex.

Something I hadn't thought of, but that would explain a few things.

 
The practice of handing over regulatory agencies to the industries it's meant to regulate has been going on for a while. The fox watching the hen house mentality.
Exactly, and this is a really good reason for why regulation often isn't as good an idea as it might appear on paper. In some cases -- possibly this one -- it's actually counter-productive.
Off-topic to pink slime, but I found this quote from a WSJ article on regulatory capture pretty interesting:

[T]he revolving door may be driven by an entirely different force. Instead of "regulatory capture," the paper provides evidence consistent with "regulatory schooling" the idea that people take regulatory jobs to become experts on complex regulations before cashing in with a private sector job. Instead of having an incentive to go easy on banks, the "regulatory schooling" hypothesis suggests regulators have an incentive to make rules more complex.

Something I hadn't thought of, but that would explain a few things.
The eventual outcome of many regulations is to stifle competition by making it more difficult for new companies to enter into the market place. Reading what the regulations say and understanding how they are enforced in the real world are two completely different things. Established businesses understand how the rules are enforced while new business is scared away by the mountains of confusing requirements.

 
What scares me is beef that does not turn brown after 3 days in the fridge. I left a head of cabbage out and it looked perfectly fine after I returned from a trip a week later. :unsure: With food companies selling GMO and using nano particles for years, I think resistance is futile. :cry:

 
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What scares me is beef that does not turn brown after 3 days in the fridge. I left a head of cabbage out and it looked perfectly fine after I returned from a trip a week later. :unsure: With food companies selling GMO and using nano particles for years, I think resistance is futile. :cry:
I'm a lot more concerned about weird chemicals being put in my food than I with GMO.

 
What scares me is beef that does not turn brown after 3 days in the fridge. I left a head of cabbage out and it looked perfectly fine after I returned from a trip a week later. :unsure: With food companies selling GMO and using nano particles for years, I think resistance is futile. :cry:
I'm a lot more concerned about weird chemicals being put in my food than I with GMO.
That's because you underestimate the amount of GMO and nanoparticles in our food. GMO entered our food supply decades ago.

 
What scares me is beef that does not turn brown after 3 days in the fridge. I left a head of cabbage out and it looked perfectly fine after I returned from a trip a week later. :unsure: With food companies selling GMO and using nano particles for years, I think resistance is futile. :cry:
I'm a lot more concerned about weird chemicals being put in my food than I with GMO.
That's because you underestimate the amount of GMO and nanoparticles in our food. GMO entered our food supply decades ago.
I'm not convinced genetically modified organisms are necessarily bad for my health.

 
What scares me is beef that does not turn brown after 3 days in the fridge. I left a head of cabbage out and it looked perfectly fine after I returned from a trip a week later. :unsure: With food companies selling GMO and using nano particles for years, I think resistance is futile. :cry:
I'm a lot more concerned about weird chemicals being put in my food than I with GMO.
That's because you underestimate the amount of GMO and nanoparticles in our food. GMO entered our food supply decades ago.
I'm not convinced genetically modified organisms are necessarily bad for my health.
This is a prime example of how Evolutuon works...

 
What scares me is beef that does not turn brown after 3 days in the fridge. I left a head of cabbage out and it looked perfectly fine after I returned from a trip a week later. :unsure: With food companies selling GMO and using nano particles for years, I think resistance is futile. :cry:
I'm a lot more concerned about weird chemicals being put in my food than I with GMO.
That's because you underestimate the amount of GMO and nanoparticles in our food. GMO entered our food supply decades ago.
I'm not convinced genetically modified organisms are necessarily bad for my health.
This is a prime example of how Evolutuon works...
No, it isn't.

 
What scares me is beef that does not turn brown after 3 days in the fridge. I left a head of cabbage out and it looked perfectly fine after I returned from a trip a week later. :unsure: With food companies selling GMO and using nano particles for years, I think resistance is futile. :cry:
I'm a lot more concerned about weird chemicals being put in my food than I with GMO.
That's because you underestimate the amount of GMO and nanoparticles in our food. GMO entered our food supply decades ago.
Nano particles are an example of weird chemicals in food. Like I said in my post, it is a concern to me.
 
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<------- for the last 5 yrs. Wife and I love it, just can't beat organic free range red meat that tastes fantastic. Cheap and renewable resource. Last year's success left us with 150# of meat with about $75 invested.

Red slime?? :lmao: By learning to process it myself, I see my red meat walking in the woods to my plate. I have a batch of Victory Dirt Wolf Venison Chili on for tomorrow. :pickle:

 
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<------- for the last 5 yrs. Wife and I love it, just can't beat organic free range red meat that tastes fantastic. Cheap and renewable resource. Last year's success left us with 150# of meat with about $75 invested.

Red slime?? :lmao: By learning to process it myself, I see my red meat walking in the woods to my plate. I have a batch of Victory Dirt Wolf Venison Chili on for tomorrow. :pickle:
:jealous: I'm not going to survive if I have to be a hunter and gatherer.

 
That is the strategy of the food companies. They keep quiet so you don't know what they do. I am not surprised most people know nothing about nanoparticles.

 
That is the strategy of the food companies. They keep quiet so you don't know what they do. I am not surprised most people know nothing about nanoparticles.
It's not all on the food companies. Nanotechnology and nano particles are just part of science, not unique to the food industry. People should take some time to educate themselves on scientific developments.

 
As long as it tastes good, I'm ok with it. Now you let them start screwing with the flavor, and we might have a problem.

 
That is the strategy of the food companies. They keep quiet so you don't know what they do. I am not surprised most people know nothing about nanoparticles.
It's not all on the food companies. Nanotechnology and nano particles are just part of science, not unique to the food industry. People should take some time to educate themselves on scientific developments.
That is the strategy of the food companies. They keep quiet so you don't know what they do. I am not surprised most people know nothing about nanoparticles.
It's not all on the food companies. Nanotechnology and nano particles are just part of science, not unique to the food industry. People should take some time to educate themselves on scientific developments.
I have no problem with its usage in the medical field, such as cancer treatment. I just don't like it when it is sneaked into my food.
 
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The practice of handing over regulatory agencies to the industries it's meant to regulate has been going on for a while. The fox watching the hen house mentality.
Exactly, and this is a really good reason for why regulation often isn't as good an idea as it might appear on paper. In some cases -- possibly this one -- it's actually counter-productive.
I have a spectacularly easy solution for this. And I'm sure you do too. And I'm sure anyone with a brain might come up with it too.

How about this wacky idea....if you're a regulatory officer for a government agency, say the FDA or the SEC or OPEC...whatever...part of your job agreement is that you'll never go to work for any company in any industry that you used to regulate.

Crazy, right? It'd almost be like a rule preventing cops from going to work for a f###ing drug cartel.

 
I agree more research and openness about ingredients is important, but many of the articles about nanoparticles are ridiculous. They talk about companies putting metal in your food. First, it is metal ions that are part of an ionic compound, which means they have different chemical properties. Second, people eat metal ions all the time. Salt has sodium, we need some potassium, iron, etc.

 
I agree more research and openness about ingredients is important, but many of the articles about nanoparticles are ridiculous. They talk about companies putting metal in your food. First, it is metal ions that are part of an ionic compound, which means they have different chemical properties. Second, people eat metal ions all the time. Salt has sodium, we need some potassium, iron, etc.
I know how much potassium and iron are in my food. When companies do not label the nanoparticles content, it looks like they have something to hide.

 

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