"Pink slime," a food additive made from spare beef trimmings that's treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill off E. coli, salmonella and other possible bacteria, continues to rear its slimy head.

Last month, as KTLA reported, McDonald's decided to cease using the additive in its hamburgers. This decision came after prodding by TV chef Jamie Oliver. On his "Food Revolution," the disgusted food activist says the additive is made of "all of the bits that no one wants."

The USDA, however, says the additive is safe to eat. The department is so satisfied with the stuff that it plans to buy 7 million pounds of ground beef containing "pink slime" in coming months for the national school lunch program, the Daily reported on Monday. And that's created a whole new stink.

Texas mom Bettina Siegel has a petition going at Change.org to get the additive out of school lunches.

An ABC News report on Wednesday stirred up more anti-pink-slime sentiment. ABC cited a former U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist in saying that 70% of supermarket ground beef contained the additive.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/natio...

I only buy ground sirloin or the ground beef they do right there in the market, but from what I've seen, the pink slime stuff is still just ground up beef (or beef parts, anyway) that are processed.

It's safe, if not very appetizing.

I'd nibble on Miranda Kerr in a heartbeat.

If they were really out for our best interest they would've labeled the stuff "finely textured beef" and explain the procedure to begin with. They didn't do it because it started out in dog food.

They know people don't take all the scraps from their own table, mush it up onto a paste, pre cook to 100 degrees, spin in a centrifuge and pour ammonia on it to kill bacteria, then mix it up in the meat they will have next time.

Agribusiness has a very strong lobby in washington. They spent $28,000,000 lobbying since last year. So if they can bribe enough politicians you never know. It could continue to be in the meat like before. It's starting already: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...

You can still buy from places that don't have the stuff in the meat. Just be careful where you buy it from.

First, good call on Soylent Green. Both the movie and the book it was based on are excellent.

Second, pink slime, and its varieties made of chicken and pork, have been around for decades. Anything that has "mechanically separated ..." is pink slime made of beef, chicken or pork. (granted, chicken "pink slime" isn't pink...)

I mean, what do you think McDonalds McNuggets are made of? Or the McRib?

Lots of hotdogs use pink slime as well, as does pet food. Again, read the ingredients.

My thought is that I would like to at least have the OPTION of eating it. If it were required to be listed as an ingredient, a consumer could have the option of eating it or not based on real information. If you still choose it, then that's on you, but if I don't even know its there, how can I make an informed decision?

I have read it is banned for human consumption in Europe.

Pink slime is the same stuff they make hot dogs and bologna out of. If they add it to hamburger, it is made from leftover beef parts, that way they can still say it's 100% beef. Yummmmmm..............

. "It's safe" is meaningless. The FDA is a farce, as many of its board members are also board members of food and drug companies.who protect their own interests. Has the FDA told food processors to stop using cans that contain cancer causing BPA? You could get cancer and then the drug companies do better. Pink slime is made from meat products (scraps) that you wouldn't ordinarily eat, that are soaked in ammonia and then processed to resemble wholesome meat. Remember the saying, "You are what you eat".

One of the ingredients in some frozen pizza's is BUTANE otherwise known as LIGHTER FUEL, processed, preservatives, instant dinners, all BAD for YOU. Cook from scratch. Just look how LONG a TWINKIE lasts! Ground beef is best when it's grass fed, you can get it from a local butcher and somewhere else and COOK it well because of E-COLI.

people are behind the times when it comes to food processing.. that's why you should NOT eat any processed foods. do you understand why?

have you heard of obesity? diabetes 2? ? how about arteriosclerosis?

that's just 1/100th. of the symptons of eating crap.

ever hear of a carrot? good lord people.. this is old news.. read "the miracles of the atomic age" already and "no such thing as a vegan" the truth is.. all processed foods ARE garbage.. eat it and no matter what you do to combat it... you are going to suffer results.

eat right.. eat fresh produce.. and don't fall for that 'organic' scam either.

there's more than pink stuff.. there's high fructose.... clear stuff.. blue stuff.. white stuff... dairy is full of crap also.. very inflammatory food.

well.. they do say eat your damned veggies!

wait until you hear what they put into animals while being raised for meat and other things.

ta-dah!

To make the meat supply safer a genius named Eldon Roth came up with a way to treat lean finely textured beef (a beef product used in hamburger and processed meat products) with ammonium hydroxide which then dissipated completely. This process kills the pathogens in the meat, making it safer. A celebrity chef decided he didn't like the perfectly safe process and in kneejerk reaction McD's and some other burger places stopped using the Lean finely textured beef, making food more expensive, and less safe.