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Vienna Beef's website lists "beef trimmings" as one of the ingredients in its hot dogs. This may or may not be the same thing as the much harried PINK SLIME we've been hearing about lately. Though I understand why the industry uses PINK SLIME (green paper), and agree that it is probably safe, just thinking about the process makes me physically ill, and I'm not one prone to squeamishness. Lets just say it involves centrifuges, gasses, high pressure baths, etc. Fucking gross. The scientists who thought this crap up should have their graves pissed on.

I'm not too worried about injesting the stuff because I don't eat a ton of ground beef, and when I do, I try to buy it from a source that grinds it from fresh, whole cuts of beef. But there is one problem - I love hot dogs. Vienna Beef hot dogs. Does this mean I'm getting PINK SLIME shoved down my throught by a bunch of evil crypto-facist capitalists?

Probably.

I've emailed Vienna Beef to clarify. Their website does not portend good news, but one never knows.

Vienna Beef's website lists "beef trimmings" as one of the ingredients in its hot dogs. This may or may not be the same thing as the much harried PINK SLIME we've been hearing about lately. Though I understand why the industry uses PINK SLIME (green paper), and agree that it is probably safe, just thinking about the process makes me physically ill, and I'm not one prone to squeamishness. Lets just say it involves centrifuges, gasses, high pressure baths, etc. Fucking gross. The scientists who thought this crap up should have their graves pissed on.

I'm not too worried about injesting the stuff because I don't eat a ton of ground beef, and when I do, I try to buy it from a source that grinds it from fresh, whole cuts of beef. But there is one problem - I love hot dogs. Vienna Beef hot dogs. Does this mean I'm getting PINK SLIME shoved down my throught by a bunch of evil crypto-facist capitalists?

Probably.

I've emailed Vienna Beef to clarify. Their website does not portend good news, but one never knows.

[title edited to reflect that VB hot dogs apparently do not contain the infamous sludge]

I get the uproar about the failure to disclose the presence of "pink slime" but I hardly find the process to be any "grosser" than slaughtering animals for food. There's nothing inherently wrong about maximizing the amount of protein you take from a carcass (really, what makes a t-bone steak wholesome but defatted trimmings repulsive?). And we've been using far "grosser" meat products in foods (ever read a label on a can of vienna sausages?) for many decades, so this is really a tempest in a teapot.

But that's not all! See, the problem when you turn garbage bits of animal carcasses into "pink slime" to sell as a food product is that there's an issue with pathogens, such as E. coli. And when samples of the pink slime were tested, the tests came back showing that the slime was rampant with harmful bacteria. Now, one might think that the best idea would be to decide not to sell pink slime to feed to humans, but there's no money in that, is there? So BPI cleverly started disinfecting the slime with ammonia. And convinced the FDA to allow them to list it as a "processing ingredient" so that we wouldn't know we were eating ammonia.
We're eating garbage, people. Literally -- garbage that's been "cleaned up" with ammonia and sold to us mixed with ground beef, shrink wrapped for convenience at our local megamart.

Beef, schmeef, it's not the trim that bothers me (or would bother me if I ate industrial grunk), it's the ammonia needed.

TLC, on its "howstuffworks.com" site explains pretty well what happens:

Change your mind?

Count me as strenuously "meh".

We revel in eyeball tacos, hogs maw, beef tendon, and if the travel channel is to be believed even assholes, as long as it’s prepared with some “authenticity” or “artistry”; but when pieces of an animal that would otherwise discarded are “mechanically separated” all of a sudden it’s offensive. And "chemical processing" describes accurately a good deal of what we discuss and partake in here.

As long as it’s properly labeled and people know what they’re buying I have no problem with it. The unfortunate truth is that a great number of people will never be able to afford organic, grass fed, pick-your-favorite-description, meat. Another truth is that meat tastes good and people are gonna want to eat it. I’m not about to tell them they can’t. The only issue I see is proper labeling.

Another point is that ammonia, like just about everything else in the world, is safe in limited quantities. I’m not going to run to the store to seek this pink stuff out but level the indignation seems a little misplaced.

VI touches on the problem with pink slime but doesn't explain why it needs to be treated. It's bits of meat that have been essentially rotting on the carcass. If the meat needs to be treated to kill it of harmful bacteria, then it's probably not suited for human consumption. Not to mention the cows themselves are not the healthiest to begin with. There's my line.

This is getting out of hand. Where on Earth did that "information" come from? There's simply no incentive for large-scale processors t leave anything around to "rot." They want to keep the process moving which is why it's not cost-effective to use every bit of meat from an animal. Their "slime" process makes it more efficient.

It's bits of meat that have been essentially rotting on the carcass.

I find this very difficult to believe. I'm gonna have to ask for a reliable citation for that claim, the ammonia could very well be used to retard bacterial growth as a preventive measure.

If the media hadn't coined the term "pink slime" for this stuff, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

If the media hadn't coined the term "pink slime" for this stuff, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

I find this very difficult to believe. I'm gonna have to ask for a reliable citation for that claim, the ammonia could very well be used to retard bacterial growth as a preventive measure.

If the media hadn't coined the term "pink slime" for this stuff, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

I don't need the media to coin a term to have a visceral reaction to this.



The information on pink slime is readily available from multiple sources. I urge you to do some reading and draw your own conclusions (as have I).

It's bits of meat that have been essentially rotting on the carcass.

This just in...a very prompt and nice response from a QC VP at VB informed me that Vienna Beef raw and finished products "do not contain any pink slime materials." Now I can rest, and consume hot dogs, easier.

I don't need the media to coin a term to have a visceral reaction to this.

Hooray! Now we only have to worry about "butt cancer."



It looks like bologna toothpaste.

The "bologna toothpaste" linked photo is for something entirely different.

No, not the pink goo in the viral Chicken McNuggets pic, but the controversial McDonald’s “pink slime” that goes into making their ubiquitous hamburger patties.

It’s not officially called pink slime, because, ew, then who would eat it? But as we know, words often win over hearts and minds, and after Jamie Oliver dubbed the extra bits of cow laying around (treated with chemicals to kill bacteria and added to burgers to beef them up) pink slime, McDonald’s announced that it would no longer be using the filler to stretch meat bits out- kind of like meatloaf, but with chemicals instead of breadcrumbs. Super ew.

So, you may not like the idea of ingesting the dirtiest parts of a cow, soaked in ammonia to keep it from making you sick because it’s so potentially dirty. But the government has repeatedly denied McDonald’s pink slime is a danger to people who eat food.