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Dem presses USDA to ban 'pink slime' in school lunches (Where else would it go?)
The Hill ^ | 3/14/12 | Mike Lillis

Posted on 03/14/2012 5:20:23 PM PDT by Libloather

Dem presses USDA to ban 'pink slime' in school lunches
By Mike Lillis - 03/14/12 06:00 PM ET

A Maine Democrat is pressing the Obama administration to ban "pink slime" in school cafeterias.

Rep. Chellie Pingree said the product – a blend of beef scraps treated with ammonia and used as a ground-beef filler – is "gross" and unfit for consumption by schoolchildren.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Pingree is urging the agency to abandon its plan to continue buying hamburgers and other meats containing the product—historically used in animal feeds—for the nation's schools.

"It is wrong to feed children a slurry that was formerly only used for dog food," Pingree wrote to Vilsack on Wednesday. "I hope you will do everything in your power to eliminate it from school lunch programs around the country."

Manufactured by Beef Products, Inc. and Cargill Meat Solutions, "pink slime" is the unflattering term attached to "lean finely textured beef," a mash of beef scraps that are treated with ammonia hydroxide, which kills certain bacteria and is used as an inexpensive way to bulk up ground beef.

Pingree and other critics of the product note that it's made up largely of connective tissue, so it shouldn't be packaged as meat. Additionally, they're questioning the effectiveness of the ammonia treatments in killing E. Coli, Salmonella and other meat-born pathogens.

The issue has churned headlines in recent months largely due to blogs, an internet petition and a celebrity chef all questioning the safety and appropriateness of adding the product to ground beef.

Both the meat industry and the Department of Agriculture say the product is safe for human consumption, including in the nation's schools. But the negative attention led a number of fast-food chains, including McDonald's and Burger King, to stop buying the product last year.

Pingree asked Vilsack, "If these fast food chains won't serve pink slime, why should school cafeterias?"

The Maine Democrat said she's been talking to the meat industry about the product, but those discussions haven't convinced her the additive is safe.

“The beef industry sent my office an email the other day describing pink slime as ‘wholesome and nutritious’ and said the process for manufacturing it is ‘similar to separating milk from cream,’ Pingree said in a statement accompanying her letter to Vilsack.

"I don’t think a highly processed slurry of meat scraps mixed with ammonia is what most families would think of as ‘wholesome and nutritious.’”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gross; pink; school; slime; usda
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Not to worry - those kids are covered by Commiecare™.

U.S. defends treated meat dubbed "pink slime" in school meals

1 posted on 03/14/2012 5:20:26 PM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather

I think they should also remove all the pink slime from the classroom.


2 posted on 03/14/2012 5:21:35 PM PDT by JewishRighter (Anybody but Hussein)
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To: Libloather

This article made me feel sick just reading it.


3 posted on 03/14/2012 5:25:32 PM PDT by Mears (Alcohol. Tobacco. Firearms. What's not to like?)
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To: Libloather

It’s in 70% of store bought ground beef too.

ABC News has a good story somewhere listing which companies use it as an additive and which don’t.


4 posted on 03/14/2012 5:25:40 PM PDT by Longbow1969
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To: Libloather

Send it to the White House and to Congress for the cafeteria. Let them eat pink slime.


5 posted on 03/14/2012 5:30:29 PM PDT by petitfour
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To: Libloather
Maybe we should just turn "Democrats" into little green crackers and feed them to the kids. Hey, that reminds me of a movie..
S O Y L E N T   G R E E N
6 posted on 03/14/2012 5:30:53 PM PDT by FedsRStealingOurCountryFromUs
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To: Mears

You haven’t lived until you’ve had a ‘pink slime’ malt!


7 posted on 03/14/2012 5:32:05 PM PDT by FedsRStealingOurCountryFromUs
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To: Libloather

Let them serve it in the Congressional and Senatorial
lunch rooms.


8 posted on 03/14/2012 5:33:23 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: FedsRStealingOurCountryFromUs

“You haven’t lived until you’ve had a ‘pink slime’ malt!”

Gee,thanks for that !!!!!!!!!


9 posted on 03/14/2012 5:33:41 PM PDT by Mears (Alcohol. Tobacco. Firearms. What's not to like?)
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To: Libloather
I'm sure they make another product which is very similar which we have all eaten. They have a ground beef (not quite so finally ground as pink slime) that they bathe in ammonia then clean with water.

My understanding is that a huge percentage (~75%) of the ground beef available on the market is treated this way.

So we are all just one step away from Soylent Pink.

10 posted on 03/14/2012 5:34:45 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: Libloather

11 posted on 03/14/2012 5:35:05 PM PDT by Crazieman (Feb 7, 2008 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966675/posts?page=28#28)
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To: Libloather
(Where else would it go?)

I betcha I know someone who would snarf it down.


12 posted on 03/14/2012 5:37:59 PM PDT by Iron Munro ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight he'll just kill you." John Steinbeck)
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To: Libloather

Send it to the Congressional cafeteria.

Let them eat it.

Or would that be redundant? Hmmm...


13 posted on 03/14/2012 5:38:34 PM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: Longbow1969
ABC News has a good story somewhere listing which companies use it as an additive and which don’t.

I looked for such a story at ABC; here's the one I found: Is Pink Slime in the Beef at Your Grocery Store?

The story listed Publix, Costco, HEB, and Whole Foods as not using pink slime: ABC News emailed the top 10 grocery chains in America. Only Publix, Costco, HEB and Whole Foods responded, saying they don’t use pink slime. No word yet from the rest.

Well done by all four of those companies; Publix, Costco, HEB, and Whole Foods are serving their customers well by not larding their ground beef this noxious substance.

14 posted on 03/14/2012 5:41:24 PM PDT by snowsislander (Gingrich 2012.)
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To: Iron Munro
Not so sure.

I think MooseChelle is only grubbin on Kobe beef these days.


15 posted on 03/14/2012 5:41:38 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: JewishRighter
absolutely...
16 posted on 03/14/2012 5:43:51 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Libloather
What's next? What food-poison combo will be threatened tomorrow?

At least the shirts are already made ...

17 posted on 03/14/2012 5:45:19 PM PDT by x
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To: Libloather

They approved it to be used in grocery store hamburger, too. Buy a roast and have it ground by the butcher. Disgusting!


18 posted on 03/14/2012 5:52:47 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Libloather
Now you know why I either buy from the local butcher shop that grinds its own or buy a chuck roast and grind my own. That stuff that comes in plastic tubes is truly disgusting.

It is neither lean nor fresh!

19 posted on 03/14/2012 5:53:18 PM PDT by Poser (Cogito ergo Spam - I think, therefore I ham)
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To: Iron Munro

That thang’s got it’s own zip code!


20 posted on 03/14/2012 6:01:35 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (I'll "vote for an orange juice can", over Barry Obummer and another 4yrs of Hell, anyday!)
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