Pink slime

Boneless lean beef trimmings refers to an industrial product created from beef trimmings using particular processes; these products are occasionally referred to using the neologism pink slime. These processes, which include meat trimmings passing through a centrifuge, and (in the most common process) being exposed to ammonia gas, have drawn attention as the subject of possible health and consumer concerns. The term pink slime was coined by Dr. Gerald Zirnstein to refer to the resulting products.

A 2012 ABC News investigative report indicated that 70 percent of ground beef (beef mince) contains the lean beef, and that the USDA has allowed it to go unlabeled over the objection of a few of its own scientists. A 2008 Washington Post article suggested that the boneless lean beef trimmings content of most beef patties containing the substance approaches 25%.

These trimmings are sold in the US to food companies which use it in ground beef production. Most is produced and sold by Cargill Meat Solutions and Beef Products, Inc. (BPI). The lean beef sold by BPI has become known for increasing the pH of the beef trimmings by adding ammonium hydroxide to destroy pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella, while the Cargill product uses antimicrobial treatments that lower the pH.

History

The typical beef production process results in beef trimmings, consisting of fat and meat, that frequently had been cooked down to recover the oils from the trim because it was not profitable to otherwise separate the meat from the trimmings. However, today much of these beef trimmings are sent as USDA-approved cuts of meat to special separation plants, where centrifuges separate the beef from the fat.

The production process was pioneered by Eldon Roth, who in the 1980s founded Beef Products Inc. to produce frozen beef. In the 1990s, in the wake of public health concerns over pathogenic E. coli in beef, Roth developed a process to use a puff of ammonia gas to raise the pH and kill any pathogens that may be found in beef trimmings purchased from other meat production houses.

Nancy Donley, president of Safe Tables Our Priority, Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America’s Food Safety Institute, and other food safety experts support the technology-based approach to food safety. Food safety experts in 2011 acknowledged the role of such processes in protecting the United States’ food supply against events such as the European E. coli outbreak.

On 24 December 2011, international fast food restaurant chains McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell announced they would discontinue the use of BPI products in their food. BPI officials said they still have other fast food chains as customers but would not identify them.

Process

According to The Washington Post, the process involves taking USDA-approved beef trimmings, separating the fat and meat with centrifuges, then squeezing the lean beef through a tube the size of a pencil, during which time it is exposed to ammonia gas. The combination of the gas with water in the meat results in a reaction that increases the pH (lowering acidity) and killing any pathogens such as E. coli.

In July 2011, Beef Products Inc. announced that it would become the first beef processor to voluntarily begin testing for an additional six strains of E. coli. According to The New York Times, the launch of this type of testing stems from an E. coli outbreak in Europe and frustration at delays by regulators to classify new types of E. coli as adulterants.

At the end of the process, the beef is at least 90 percent lean. It is used in meat supplies across the US. It rarely comprises more than 25 percent of the final meat product that consumers purchase and eat.

Controversy

A December 2009 New York Times article called into question the safety of the meat treated by this process, pointing to occasions in which process adjustments were not effective. The following week, the newspaper published an editorial, "More Perils of Ground Meat," reiterating the concerns posed in the news article. Several days later, the editorial was appended with a retraction, stating that it had incorrectly claimed there had been two recalls of ground meat because of this process, and that "No meat produced by Beef Products Inc. has been linked to any illnesses or outbreaks."

An episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution depicted Jamie Oliver's interpretation of the production process, in which Oliver douses beef trimmings in liquid ammonia in front of parents. In videos produced by the American Meat Institute and Beef Products, food safety expert Dr. Gary Acuff of Texas A&M University was interviewed and identified potentially misleading inaccuracies in the Oliver segment.

See also

• Advanced meat recovery
• Meat slurry, a.k.a. white slime, which typically refers to reconstituted chicken