Early last week one of our good customers, Janice H., made a reference to “pink slime” in an email. I didn’t really understand it at the time, I just thought it was a generic reference to what might be added to ground meat to keep it “fresh” when it is not frozen. Janice said, “I am so thankful to have good meat to feed my family and especially after hearing about that pink slime that goes into a lot of beef, yuk!” (Sometimes people ask, “Why are you doing this, selling beef??? You can’t make much money doing that!” Well, maybe there are more important things, like the feeling I get when someone like Janice says something like she did in that email …)
I don’t watch much TV, so every decade or so I miss something important (something that wasn’t on Seinfeld or The Office). But after Janice’s email I caught the tail end of a news report regarding customers demanding to know whether “pink slime” was in so-and-so store’s ground beef. I could tell something was up … I needed to get educated, catch up with Janice!
Strangely, I read the Wall Street Journal and Austin’s paper, daily, and I haven’t seen anything on “pink slime”. In fact, a search done just a few minutes ago yields nothing from either … weird.
So, what’s the story?
Well, a Google search found quite a bit, including a story and video on ABC News. According to ABC News, a “lean beef product” is added to like 70 percent of all ground beef, and is likely to be found in 25 % of the hamburger patties you eat (unless you eat only our Steakburger, because none of this is in ANY of your Condalia Farms Brand Steakburger!).
So, what is this stuff? It appears to be the “everything else” that is left on a cow, scoured off, picked up, whatever, then ground fine and extruded through a small diameter nozzle whereupon ammonium hydroxide gas is applied to raise the pH and kill bacteria that might have come from it being on the floor, or whatever! Wow! So, some “genius” no doubt had this idea: everyone wants lean beef, and here is a way you can take stuff that had been wasted or sent to a rendering plant – basically low value – and sell it as part of high-value, lean ground beef! Imagine, here is a product you can make a lot of, cheaply, and add it to fatty ground beef to yield more expensive, lean beef! Ironically, many choosy mother’s choose “lean beef” in the grocery store, paying a little more to eat a little healthier – but in this case the lean beef component might make her choice less healthy!
Folks, this is what we are talking about, this is why we are in business! This is why you need to know where your food comes from. This “pink slime” operation makes an understatement out of Chipotle’s satire animation of factory meat! (linked in the previous post)