“Pink Slime or Lean, Finely Textured Beef?

What can I get you “Pink Slime or Lean, Finely Textured Beef?

 Jonie McGhee

            You have to admit, hearing the words lean, finely textured beef (LFTB) sounds like the description of a crème de la crème dish on a fine dining restaurant menu. The USDA seems to think that LFTB, a meat filler which is a by product of left over meat trimmings, is perfectly fine for the public to eat. In fact meat companies are not even required to list this mystery meat on its labels.  It appears that we the people have been eating this fine delicacy in fast food hamburgers, grocery stores and our school children have been chowing down on it for years in the school cafeteria.  It wasn’t until an internal email, written by a USDA scientist who coined the words “pink slime” to describe the filler, was leaked to the media did the “slime” hit the fan.

            In 2009 the New York Times ran a story on the creator of the miracle meat, Eldon Roth, and his company Beef Products Inc. (BPI), and reality TV Chef, Jamie Oliver, shed more light on the subject on his Food Revelation show in 2011. Now the media and grass roots organizations are having a feeding frenzy on the subject and the public is outraged.   So just what is this hidden invader that has been injected into our diets?  I mentioned earlier that LFTB is the results of meat that has been discarded from the more desired cuts of meat. What is left is usually sold as dog food.

            USA Today reported that Mr. Roth discovered that you could take these scraps and spin them or send them through a centrifuge and separate the meat from the fat. The separated meat is the LFTB.  When the threat of salmonella surfaced Mr. Roth’s company, BPI, added a very small percentage of ammonia to the mix to kill any bacteria.  This is the recipe that the USDA has approved for our diet. Proponents of the beef filler say “the USDA recognizes that this product is what it is: 100% beef. There is no need for labeling LFTB because nothing is being added that is not beef.”

            Since the public was made aware of LFTB, BPI has had to shut down 3 of its plants and lay off hundreds of workers. Russell Cross, head of the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University, stated “what the public needs to know is that because of this situation, about 13 pounds of quality beef per animal now will be wasted. We'd need to raise an additional 1.5 million cattle each year to make up for this loss. The price of the raw material for ground beef has increased more than 15% in the past few weeks. Guess who will get to pay for the increase? The consumer.”