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It鈥檚 probably in your hamburger and your lean chunk, and you might not even know it.
, pink slime is composed of beef trimmings that are mostly fat, says , a food scientist at Rutgers University. They鈥檙e collected and heated until liquefied. Then they鈥檙e put in a centrifuge so that the fat separates from the lean portion, similar to how butterfat is separated from milk. The lean portions are then collected and added to meat, often making for leaner, tender burgers.
Lean finely textured beef, or trimmings called pink slime, is not listed on labels stuck to ground beef packages, but there鈥檚 a high likelihood that it鈥檚 in there. The pink stuff鈥檚 renewed popularity is again prompting the gag reflex thanks to , the to allow schools to say no to these trimmings, blogger Bettina Siegel鈥檚 petition, and from fast food chains to keep it out of their products.
The current controversy is over how the trimmings are treated with ammonia. Because they鈥檙e often cut from the outside of the meat, they have a higher chance of containing bacteria like E. coli, so they鈥檙e exposed to controlled concentrations of ammonia gas, something that celebrity chef Jamie Oliver discussed in a .
鈥淭he idea that you鈥檙e going to take ammonia, which we鈥檙e all familiar with as a kitchen cleaning compound, and add that to my hamburger鈥eople think that鈥檚 kind of disgusting,鈥 says Schaffner. 鈥淔rom a scientific point of view, it鈥檚 a perfectly safe and rational process, but in people鈥檚 minds, it shouldn鈥檛 be something in their food.鈥
Ammonia exists naturally on many other foods, like oranges and cheese, something that often goes unnoticed, he says. There are no labeling requirements for pink slime, though, so if the idea of eating food with chemically treated trimmings grosses you out, ask your grocer if your ground beef contains lean finely textured beef. Another alternative is to buy all beef hamburgers.
A third option is to forego eating meat altogether, which might be the most environmentally friendly option. Beef cattle in the U.S. account for 160 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to a Union of Concerned Scientists . That鈥檚 the same amount as the emissions from 24 million cars and light trucks.
Then there鈥檚 always eating the fake stuff. As food columnist Mark Bittman about imitation chicken meat: 鈥淚sn鈥檛 it preferable, at least some of the time, to eat plant products mixed with water that have been put through a thingamajiggy that spews out meatlike stuff, instead of eating those same plant products put into a chicken that does its biomechanical thing for the six weeks of its miserable existence, only to have its throat cut in the service of yielding barely distinguishable meat?鈥
Even though the process of creating pink slime and adding it to ground beef is safe, it鈥檚 better to be informed. This from the San Francisco Chronicle (based on a piece from ) lists stores that sell meat with and without the pink stuff.