I have started to branch out with my writing career. This is an article of mine recently published in the Nevada Rancher. The magazine isn't on line and I've had a few requests for this article, so I thought I would share it here! Enjoy!
Recently on a social media site there was a post
claiming that a certain fast food chain “is changing the recipe for their
hamburgers.” Jaime Oliver (a British
chef/media personality who has made it his mission to prevent the use of
processed foods in our American school systems), claims “the fatty parts of beef are “washed” in ammonium hydroxide
and used in the filling of their hamburgers.”
He calls this the “Pink Slime Process.”
 |
When heifers make weight they will be
shipped to the feedlot to finish and then to a harvesting facility. Before being portioned, they are misted with
ammonium hydroxide to prevent bacterial growth.
|
There is no “pink slime” in
hamburgers. The correct term is Lean
Finely Textured Beef (LFTB). LFTB is
lean meat that is used in part to make ground beef. Ground beef is made up of lean beef trimmings
and other beef trimmings that are combined and ground together. The benefit of LFTB is that the fat from the
lean in the beef trimmings is separated from the meat and we are able to make a
leaner and more affordable ground beef.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to trim
the meat from the fat by hand. This is
where technology comes in. Before this
technology was utilized, roughly 13 pounds of beef was wasted on each carcass. When beef carcasses are portioned, the pieces
that are cut off often have lean meat remaining. It is virtually impossible (not to mention
time consuming) to manually remove the meat from the fat by hand. To separate the fat from the meat, the trimmings
are warmed to their pre-chilled temperature, and then sent to a centrifuge
where the fat is removed using a centrifugal force (think spun really really
fast until the meat and the fat separate, similar to how milk and cream are
separated). You now have a meat product
that is 94% to 97% lean. It is 100% beef
and fully inspected and regulated by the USDA.
Ammonium Hydroxide is another phrase
that is used to scare people. You know
ammonia is used in several household cleaning agents and fertilizers. It is toxic and if mixed with bleach a toxic
gas will result. Did you know that
ammonium hydroxide is naturally found in beef, other proteins, and virtually
all foods? So what is ammonium
hydroxide? Ammonium hydroxide is a combination of ammonia and water, two things
that naturally occur in our bodies. It
is administered in the form of a puff gas which is misted over each carcass,
and is used to slightly raise the pH on the surface of beef (where bacteria and
germs like to congregate) to create an environment that prevents the growth of
deadly pathogens like E coli and salmonella, helping to prevent bacterial
contamination of our food.
Ammonia based compounds are naturally
occurring and found in every component of a bacon cheese burger. In fact, the beef in a bacon cheese burger
makes up about 9% of the total 2,013 ppm (parts per million) of ammonium
hydroxide in that burger. It is
estimated that people ingest about 17 grams of ammonia daily. Essentially you could consume 1,000 hamburger
patties containing LFTB daily without any adverse effects.
 |
Ammonia based compounds are naturally
occurring and can be found in every component of a bacon cheeseburger (bun,
bacon, cheese, condiments, and beef).
|
According to the World Health
Organization, the world population is increasing by 220,000 people every
day. Red meat consumption is rising and
the available supply is declining. LFTB
production makes it possible to have more of the leaner ground beef blends
consumers want at an affordable price.
If LFTB were not produced, it would be equivalent to throwing 5,700
cattle away each day. In an era where thousands of Americans do not have access to enough food and we are encouraged to
conserve our resources, utilizing lean finely textured beef makes a lot of
sense to me.
