“Pink slime” has made the news and false claims about it are hurting the beef industry.  It has been exaggerated to be made of discarded meat scraps which are soaked in ammonia and mixed in with meat products such as hamburger.  I like to keep in mind that reality cook shows and the media like drama and attention.  I also like to keep in mind that the USDA Food Safety and Inspections Division prohibits the use of mechanically separated beef in food for people.  None-the-less, I decided to look into this pink slime stuff.  Apparently it is lean, finely textured beef separated from fat trimmings by the use of a centrifugal force.  Sometimes, these beef trimmings are exposed to a small amount of food-grade ammonium hydroxide, in a gas form, to act as an anti-microbial agent.  Meat isn’t soaked in ammonia.  Which, really, is just common sense.  Small amounts of these trimmings are then mixed in with products such as hamburger.  Because the trimmings are so lean, the burger doesn’t have the flavor and texture that consumers are used to.  The fat in beef accounts for part of its flavor.  So, basically, pink slime, which is actually a misnomer, is lean beef.  For anyone who might stumble across this post, I hope you understand that beef is delicious, safe and nutritious.

As a side note…  Mechanically separated meat (beef) is a meat product made by forcing bones with edible meat attached through a sieve-type device to separate the bone from the meat.  This becomes dog food.