What is Pink Slime?

Pink slime has been in the news a lot lately. Which grocery stores sell it? What fast-food chains use it? Will certain public schools use it in school lunches?

So what is pink slime? First off, they're not talking about pink algae which is sometimes seen in swimming pools and called pink slime by some.  The official name is "Boneless lean beef trimmings". When a cow is butchered, there are leftover trimmings of meat mixed with a lot of fat and connective tissue. The meat industry used to cook the trimmings to render out the oil to make some profit from it. Then in 1990, Eldon Roth, founder of a frozen beef company called Beef Products Inc (BPI) had an idea.

The trimmings are finely ground and then spun in a high speed centrifuge to separate out the fat from the meat. The meat is squeezed through a tube the size of a pencil and exposed to ammonia gas to kill any pathogens such as E. coli. At the end of the process, the beef is at least 90 percent lean. It is used in meat supplies across the US, usually mixed in with normal hamburger upto 25% of the content.

Some people find the process objectionable and coined the derogatory term, pink slime. Other health experts credit the process for reducing the risk of E. coli infections.

Bottom Line

The sad part about the whole thing is that no labeling is required to indicate that Boneless lean beef trimmings were used. It may be perfectly safe but there's no way to opt out as an informed consumer except for giving up all hamburger.

And least people get into a huff over this, look closely at chicken and hams at grocery stores. Many have water and chemicals injected for "preservatives" but also to add weight and cost. Last week I noticed that a 5-gallon bottled water contained chemicals on the ingredients listing? Why?! For preservatives and minerals it claimed.

New Rules for Pork

(Lisa) “I’m going to become a vegetarian”
(Homer) “Does that mean you’re not going to eat any pork?”
“Yes”
“Bacon?”
“Yes Dad”
“Ham?”
“Dad all those meats come from the same animal”
“Right Lisa, some wonderful, magical animal!”
- The Simpsons

I love a juicy pork chop but I've given up ordering chops at restaurants. They come out dry as leather almost every time. The reason for this is trichinosis, a parasitic disease caused by eating roundworm larvae in undercooked meat. This used to be quite common and some hypothesize that it's the reason behind the Jewish Kosher law forbidding pork. But today Trichinosis is no longer a problem in commercially grown pork and hasn't been for years. So the USDA has issued new guidelines saying that it's OK to eat pork that is still pink and it's OK to cook it to 145 F instead of 160 F as previously recommended.

"We found it was perfectly acceptable and that 160 was probably overkill," says Elisabeth Hagen, USDA's undersecretary for food safety.

The new guidelines focus on killing Salmonella which, sadly, is far too common in foods today like eggs and spinach. Cook meat to "145 for all whole cuts of red meat, 160 for ground red meat and 165 for poultry". When your whole cut of meat reaches 145 degrees, let it sit for three minutes the USDA recommends. The external temperature will be higher and will continue to cook the center for added safety without overcooking.

The 160 F is needed to kill bacteria like Salmonella that reside on the outside of the meat. Usually an internal temperature of 145 indicates that the outside has reached 160. When meat is ground, like hamburger, the bacteria can get mixed into the center and so every part of the meat must reach 160 (or 165 for chicken since Salmonella is more prevalent in poultry).

Bottom Line

Old habits can be hard to kick but I'm looking forward to juicer pork roast and chops.